


Long Awaited Sacrifice

by ScribeofDeath



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Complicated Relationships, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Heavy Angst, Original Character(s), POV Original Character, Sex, semi-polyamory relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:08:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 56,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28185888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribeofDeath/pseuds/ScribeofDeath
Summary: It's the start of something new for Alyx, otherwise known as Alex, but what difference does that make? Demons have become a thing suddenly, although she already knew that, considering her P.h.D in Demonology and history.
Relationships: Dante/Vergil (Devil May Cry)/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	1. The Start of A New Beginning

Everything is worth a sacrifice. If you think along those lines, you might find yourself on the wrong path in life, like I am right now. I did everything that the damned book told me to do, and here I am, lying in a pool of my blood as war rages around me. I mean, how was I supposed to know that it was lying?

May 16th, 2019, 8:06 PM

I’m Alex, a normal human, well semi-normal. I mean even my actual name is weird. For reference, my given name is Alyx as my parents decided to screw me over with spelling and pronunciation from an early age. My story starts four years ago when that massive tree sprung up in Red Grave. It took a month for that entire thing to be dealt with, however, what our world has become since that has been far more dangerous. The entire thing was a new king of hell rising to try to gain more power. Yes, I am talking about demons. It was a surprise to everyone. Well, once again, almost everyone.  
“MOM! HOLY SHIT I WAS RIGHT! Demons do exist!” I jump from my seat on the couch and yell at my mother, who happens to be cooking in the kitchen at the moment. You see, I had been researching my thesis in demonology, and had found some surprising information that maybe it wasn’t all just speculation. Of course, in my actual work, I had to make it seem like I was talking theoretically about everything, so I had managed to get my degree in the end.  
Mom walks out of the kitchen quickly after I scream, and then sighs, rolling her eyes. “Alex? Again with…” She stops short as she looks at the news from Red Grave, and her face goes completely white.

June 15th, 2019, 4:27 PM

After that, the next month was spent watching the news and hearing the body count grow higher as it, the Qliphoth, grew higher and overtook the entirety of Red Grave City instead of just the center. That being said, I went out and gathered more information, writing, and drawing out everything I could about the demons that were being shown on the news. It was just when I was finished drawing up what seemed to be a Demonic insect, subclass Empousa when the tree fell fully. I watched as it fell, and sighed to myself as my parents jumped with joy and cried.  
“Darling we’re saved! Someone finally got to that tree and destroyed it!”  
“I understand this. Did you ever think that maybe that was a bad thing in the end?” I stare at my parents shaking my head as I head upstairs to my room. The creaking of the stairs underneath my steps reminds me of how much I had stashed under my floorboards.  
You see, while I had been doing my research over demons and everything about them, I had found that there was so much more to the world than just them. There were devil/demon hunters, cultists, witches, although I have to say I already knew about the last one especially in the resurgence of paganism.  
I get to the top of the stairs and look back down, wondering for a moment if what I’m about to do with my life, will cause irreparable damage to my family. I take a deep breath and shake my head. “No, it is better that I do this. It’s better to start late than never.” Opening the door, I grab the closest bags I have, both of which are black duffle bags. I quickly throw them on my bed and look around my room, wondering what I should pack and what I should leave behind. At a quick glance, I can see my two bookshelves placed beside my one window, my dresser pushed against the wall by the door my laptop sitting on top of it, and my closet situated in the wall.  
“The books would be a good choice, but only the ones focused on my research and demons,” murmuring I stride over to the bookcases and look through the titles carefully, finding five that will be useful in total.  
Placing them in the first duffle bag, I then walk to my door and close it, locking it behind me, and stare at the floor. I walk over the floor, pacing back and forth throughout my room until I hear the telltale groan of wood, and stop. I grin, crouching down and pulling the loose floorboard up. Under it was a tiny space about the size of a small purse, that was filled with stacks of money. I pull out all of the stacks, and count them, making sure that all twelve were there. Each stack was made up of twenty fifties, which made the total of each stack to be a grand each. While counting I think of how I managed to accumulate this much, remembering how it took three jobs and squirreling away every fifty I had. It took almost eight years to get this much, which is sadly almost the same amount it took to get my Ph.D. in occultism/history. I shake my head and go back to counting once I realized I lost count.  
Once I finished counting it, I hid it under my books, and on multiple pages throughout them, making sure that no one would be able to steal the whole amount at any time. “That’s the money aspect, not counting what I have in the bank…” I think for a moment, looking around again, before heading to the closet.  
Once in the closet, I pull out a couple of t-shirts, and about four pairs of pants, before moving onto the dresses, and the more eccentric part of my wardrobe. Despite being twenty-nine, I still dress like I’m going to a funeral most of the time. I stare down the gothic style dresses, as well as hanging corsets, before sighing and taking all of them. ‘Maybe the leather that most of them are made out of will be helpful?’ I think to myself, as I shove them and the normal clothes into the first duffle bag. After shoving everything in I struggle with the zipper and mutter some curses, until it goes, sighing once again. I head towards the dresser, grabbing at least four bras, two binders, a set of underwear that I hadn’t opened, and at least fifteen pairs of socks. I then grab two sets of bed-wear, both of them being a tank top with shorts. I shove all of these into the second duffle bag, before grabbing my hairbrush and my two hats. Once I make sure I have all of the clothes I need for getting out of this house, I grab my laptop and its charger, stuffing it in the bag as well. I grab my phone’s charger from my nightstand, the last thing that I need from this room. I take a deep breath once again, and unlock the door to my room, and head to the bathroom, grabbing my toothbrush and toothpaste. I stare at my hair products and shrug. “That won’t be needed as of right now, I can grab some once I hit the road, or just use what’s in the hotels…” Before leaving the bathroom, I look into the mirror for a moment, catching something from my eyes peripheral. A long white streak has grown in my hair, which shouldn’t be possible, but I guess in this world, everything is possible. I run my fingers through my hair, looking for any in the back, but find none. Staring into my face makes me consider if doing this, leaving my family, is the best course of action. I run my hand through my hair, pulling it back into a ponytail and tying it up. “No matter what happens, it’s safer for me, and for my family, if I leave while I continue my research,” I speak in low tones, and stare at my reflection once again, taking in my appearance. While I may not think the same, others have described me as beautiful with a stone-cold face, a marble-like complexion, and hair as dark as midnight. I see my hair as a dull black, my features sharp, and I do happen to agree with the marble-like complexion. “Maybe it’s from stress?” I murmur, turning away from the mirror and leaving the bathroom.  
I bring my hairbrush toothbrush and toothpaste, putting them into the second duffle bag. Finished with packing, I head downstairs with the first bag, grabbing my car keys as I walk past my still crying parents, who hold each other with love. I grimace, and open the front door, heading towards my car, a blue Toyota made in 2017. I managed to get it after making sure my credit was great and managed to get a good deal. Opening the trunk, I put the duffle bag in, and close it, then heading back inside.  
Passing my parents once again, I wonder how I could be so different from them, despite being raised in the same house and respecting the same things they do. My mother, who has short brown hair, is a small woman who despite being only 5’4” can climb up the stairs of our house in less than ten seconds. My father has Black hair, and is quite tall, being around 6’4” when he fully stands up. I continue up the stairs, shaking my head at their continuous display of affection, and grab the second duffle bag, then closing my door for what may be the last time. I take another deep breath and head down the stairs, stopping just before fully coming down the stairs, hearing my parent’s voices, my father speaking quietly over the TV.  
“I think, it’s time for us to discuss our daughter,” he speaks slowly, the tone of his voice soft, yet unrelenting. “She’s twenty-nine and has spent most of her adult life in school, getting a degree that we thought wouldn’t amount to anything. Well, that is not entirely the case now is it?” he sighs heavily, and I can hear the rustle of clothes.  
“No, it’s not. We both knew that we would have to tell her eventually, that we knew why she wasn’t exactly like us. Her desire to follow the occult no matter how hard we tried to raise her to be a normal child, I guess that blood will always be hers.” My mother’s voice shakes as she speaks the last sentence, and it shakes my core. Clenching my fists, I continue to listen in.  
“While we named her, she is still a half-breed, a result of a mistake you made Elijah! How could you even think that THING, was me? It barely looked human…” her voice eventually raises to a yell, and I can hear the panic in her voice. “Do you know how many times I stared at Alyx, and wondered when it would wear off? When we would finally see if she would turn into one of those horrid things?!” Her voice raises once again and I can practically hear my father flinch.  
“Darling, I made sure to get the blocking spell, so that wouldn’t even be a possibility. And she looks more like you than me anyway darling, which is because the demon took your form.” father sighs again, and I feel my grip go tighter at his next words.  
“Amelia, we can’t keep doing this. You promised you would take care of her, even though she wasn’t your blood, no matter what. Even if that meant using your blood in a spell to make her appear human.” he stops talking, and I can hear both of them sigh deeply.  
Clenching and unclenching my hand holding the duffle bag, I head down the rest of the stairs, grabbing my coat and two sets of my shoes. I open the door just as I hear my mother speak again.  
“Alex, where are you going? Well, I suppose since you're an adult and you're paying rent, you don’t need to answer that,” Sighing deeply, she continues. “We need to talk, so once you're done with putting that in your car, can you come and talk with your father and I?”  
I clench my jaw, and nod, closing the door behind me as I head towards my car. I blink rapidly, trying to dismiss the thoughts surrounding my head. “Why, why would they hide this until now, especially since they knew my interests? Did they think it was that much of a bad thing, me being half-demon?” I murmur as I open the trunk, putting the duffle bag in, and closing the door. I head to the passenger side door, and throw my coat and shoes in the seat, before closing the door and looking back at the house.  
The house itself was once a pale white, but now looks like a creme color, and the build is a simple ranch style. I shake my head and start to walk towards the front door, giving myself an inner pep talk about how to deal with the situation without being rude. I find myself staring at the front door, and its handle, wondering when I’m going to open it. I sigh, and shake my head, and open the door. Stepping inside I’m greeted by the sight of my mother and father sitting at the table staring at me. I sit down in the seat across from them and start to speak.  
“So when were you going to inform me that I wasn’t actually fully human? Before or after I had left the house in pursuit of more information on demons and their kind, or rather their world?” Feeling my face contort into a look of annoyance, I school my features, making it appear as a grimace instead.  
Sighing, my father answers quietly. “We had been planning on telling you when you were eighteen, but…” He looks over at my mother, who looks even more tired than she had been before. “We never got around to it. So we just kept saying to ourselves that ‘oh we’ll tell her when she gets older’, but we never did. With what’s happening in Red Grave City, we both decided it would be best to tell you.”  
I continue to stare him down, in complete silence, before turning to my mother. She flinches slightly, but I don’t stop staring at her.  
“We started using the spell when you were two, and your hair quickly turned to a black the color of your fathers, and nothing else changed. It wears off every four months.” ‘Getting straight to the point,’ I think and smile.  
“I can work with that, now is there anything else that I need to know before I leave. I don’t know if I will ever be returning.” I stare down at my father now, knowing that there must be something he didn’t share with my mother. He squirms under my gaze, before taking a deep breath and standing up from the table. He motions for both my mother and me to follow him, as he heads out the back door, towards the old willow tree behind our house. Watching as he moves towards the tree, I follow with some hesitation, noting that the mother does the same. Quietly, and with what looks to be practice, I watch as he pulls off a section of the tree's bark, and pulls it away to reveal that it was a metal plate that hides a compartment in the tree.  
Walking forward I quickly reach the willow tree, I stare at my father’s handiwork, as well as what it contains. Once I look in, I immediately feel something click in the back of my mind, and I reach in, and take the object, looking at it in awe. It’s a book the size of a standard sketch-book, but as thick as four combined, the pages looking old and withered.  
“That was left with you, on our doorstep with a note.” father reaches in, and pulls out a sheet of paper, blowing on it gently. “ It reads; ‘This child is your’s Elijah. While this information might be a surprise to you, just remember that night we had together, it was one of the few in which I was freed from my duty in guarding an enchanting place for Sparda. Name her what you like. Sincerely Nevan. P.S. be grateful for this gift, she will do many great things if you let her.’” He sets down the note, and looks up at me, while I hold the book tightly against my chest.  
“The last thing in here is something she said would help you, whenever you gained your abilities… which, your mother and I kept from you.” He pulled out one last item, a dark pendant a mix of red and purple gems fused into one shard, hanging by a thread. Motioning for me to take it, he groans as he stands, and puts the metal plate back onto the tree, making it look as though there was no compartment at all.  
“Father. Thank you for being honest.” I stare up at him for a moment, before turning to my mother, and walking towards her. “Thank you, for taking care of me one last time.” I bring my forehead to hers for a moment or two, before backing away, and heading towards my car.  
Getting to the front of the house, I take an inventory of everything that I have, including the new book and necklace, and my biological mother’s writing. Realizing that I have everything I need, I pull my car keys out of my pocket and start my car up. Taking a deep breath, I drive away from the one place I was even remotely safe in, and drive into the new world, in search of who I am, and how I exist. My journey starts now, on this right turn.


	2. Longing Nights and Lonely Alleys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The months after leaving her parents are tough, but it doesn't matter, Alyx gets what she wants, and she'll make a name for herself.

July 19th, 2019, 4:30 PM

It’s been a month or longer since I’ve left my family, one of the last places I would have been safe. So far in my travels, I’ve managed to go through ten states and find even more information on demons, including that of my birth mother. It took a few days of searching on the east coast, going through Rhode Island, New York, and Virginia were the ones who supplied the most information. However, it was sadly not for free.  
“Are you kidding me? A simple question costs twenty dollars or important information in return?” I sighed deeply, wondering if I should even go through with the deal. I pat my back pocket, and grab my wallet, taking out a twenty-dollar bill, and handing it to him. The man grinned and started to speak.  
“Nevan was a succubus type, she lured men down the path to hell promising them herself if they followed. She was one of the gatekeepers of Temen-ni-gru and was slain by a devil hunter almost thirty years ago. The succubus type of devil can shapeshift into any form they wish, and many of them have other abilities as well.” The broker stops speaking after that, looking me up and down for a solid minute, before voicing his thoughts once again.  
“Ya know, you look mighty familiar when compared to a succubus…” he starts, and immediately, I start to walk away, already having an idea of what he was thinking, after all, it’s not the first time I’ve heard that before. After leaving the shop quickly, I decided to look around before heading back to my motel room. I quietly walk around, admiring the lights and the tall buildings, finding myself in the middle of a bustling city. Taking a deep breath in, I listen to the sounds the city brings, and smile lightly, folding my hands behind my back, starting to walk again. 

September 6th, 2019, 10:38 AM

In the past month and a half, I have earned myself the nickname of “the walking Library”, about how much knowledge I know, and that if you need me to do a job, or help you with one, I can help you find out the weak spots of any demon. “It’s not a bad nickname to have,” I murmur to myself, as I work on the assignment I was given by a man known as J.D. Morrison. So far from working with him he seems like a kind man, despite his hard exterior. Stretching for a moment, I look down at the mess of paper in my lap, most of it filled with research on Enochian, what is widely renowned as the demonic language and tongue. The book that Nevan left me was fully in that language.  
I stare at the book in question in annoyance, before sighing and rubbing my eyes. “Why did I think it was a good idea to start working so early in the morning?” Grumbling, I get up and yawn, walking to the bathroom slowly. Locking the door behind me, I check behind the curtain, just in case someone or something was there, and upon finding none, I turn the shower on, and wait for the hot water to start running as I strip down fully. Reaching my hand into the shower I pull it back almost immediately once the water touches it yelping slightly. “Fucking hell! That is a bit too hot to start with.” Immediately I maneuver my arm in the shower and adjust the temperature until it’s not boiling.  
Sighing, I enter the shower at last and groan loudly. “Goddamn, this is practically heaven.” I stand in the water for around fifteen to twenty minutes, before starting to wash my hair and body. It doesn’t take me long after that, so I get out five minutes later. Drying off however is a different experience, however.  
“I swear I am going to shave you off,” I growl out, trying to dry my hair but it still comes out completely soaked. I end up putting it in a bun, making sure that no white is showing. “I keep forgetting to put hair dye on my list of things to buy, after all at this point it’s just my roots that need it,” I grumble as I head out of the bathroom, be-lining for one of my duffel bags.  
Despite living in this place for a week, I haven’t bothered to unpack, I know that I'll have to either change to another motel or find a job with a room attached. Biting my lip I grab one of the more eccentric dresses that I own, throwing it on, then grabbing the matching corset, tying it up in less than ten minutes. Grabbing a hairpin, I make sure my bun is in place with the elastic as well as the hairpin. I take a quick look in the mirror as I grab my shoes from the door, and stuff all of my belongings under the beds, except for the recent assignment strewn over the bed. This is the third “job” that is done for Morrison, and so far he and his client have enjoyed the heads up on what they’re facing. He wanted to meet up at someplace before discussing something with me, it was a coffee shop on the nicer side of town, so I suppose it’s safer than where I’m currently staying. I put together everything, making sure that all of the papers are in order. I fold them properly and grab my coat, knowing that today will be a cold day.

September 6th, 12:00 PM

I sit across from Morrison, drinking some tea before discussing some more business plans. He looks over the information that I gave him, and nods, sliding an envelope across the table to me. I grab it and use my butter knife to open it, finding that the contents are a good three hundred dollars.  
In a smooth voice sounding like he should be singing rather than talking, Morrison speaks up. “It’s quite handy having you around these parts Alex. Are you planning on staying any longer in the area?”  
I quickly catch what he means, which is if he continues to count on my services. To this, I smile lightly, and as a question back in return.  
“Will I be getting compensated for my work? Will I be able to gain more information on this world and the next? You know my nickname Morrison, you thought it was an apt one. So, in exchange for me staying in your area, and helping, I want something in return.”  
Morrison is quiet for a moment, thinking about the deal, and I can see on his face that it’s a genuine struggle of him wondering what I could want from him, and not his client.  
“What is it that I could offer you that my client couldn’t?” oh he dares even ask, and I feel my face split into a predatory grin for a moment, one that Morrison catches easily.  
“Oh, just some information to add to my collection. Simple really, something I know that you know. Are there half-breeds of humans and demons, because I did the math and found a surprising result, and all I want from you is the truth. I’m owed that much aren’t I?” I question, tilting my head to the side and making myself look as innocent as possible.  
Hearing his breath shake makes a shiver roll down my spine, and I almost lose my act, but I manage to keep it up, just so that I get my information.  
“I… suppose you’re worth that information. I know of three, all of them are related. Two are brothers, one is the son of those two brothers. It is possible, but I don’t see why this is the information you wanted.” He’s confused and looks at it, his brows furrowed, his hand tapping against his leg as he answers my question.  
I sigh, and relax my posture, resting my head on one of my arms. “If you must know, it’s a simple thing. I found that there were many instances of higher up demons deciding to have fun with humans instead of killing them, resulting in them being released when they were finished. I noticed it was common, however, that it almost always results in a stillborn, and there is a twenty percent chance that the child lives.” Morrison, for his own sake, is not as surprised as I thought he would be but reacts as if it was something familiar yet unknown.  
“But that would mean there are/” I cut him off quickly, explaining the rest of my work, after all, it is only fair.  
“More half-demons than the ones you have seen? Absolutely. However, I did notice something odd with the numbers. Every single woman that bore a child, no matter what gender the child was, always had pure white hair. Even if they were stillborn. This makes me conclude that demon blood when compatible with humans even remotely, changes the DNA of the human, leaving that latent trait behind.” I think for a moment to myself, wondering if I was too cold in explaining my findings, especially as I look at Morrison’s face as he realizes everything I just said. ‘Am I too blunt? Did I mess up my wording? What did I do wrong for him to have that look of absolute horror on his face?’ My thoughts run rampant, so much that I almost forget that I’m having an actual conversation, and almost jump out of my seat when Morrison speaks up after a good minute.  
“You ever think of doing research full time for my client, call me and I’ll give you their card. No questions asked, nothing. Payment will be explained, and possible rooming will be discussed as well. You can think about this offer as long as you like, it has no expiration date. I think my client would enjoy your bluntness. Until then, any other tricks up your sleeve?” Morrison proposed, grabbing his drink and taking a long sip of it. ‘Thinking it over would be a wise idea, don’t go into it just yet, might be some sort of trap or another bad idea.’  
“I’ll think about it, and let you know when I decide, but be warned this is not something I will do on a whim,” ‘oh it certainly is but goddamn am I not going to be stuck without everything I need before getting into it’. “However, I can answer your last question before heading out. For example, I am almost at a breakthrough in translating Enochian. It might take a month or more for me to learn how to pronounce certain words correctly, and to be able to translate their entire alphabet, but I’m getting there. I can easily make potions or spells with the right ingredients, and sigils, to the point where if I got a steady stream of supplies I could make a shop from it with a little help. Most of its little things that will help the average person who goes against demons, however, some are… incredibly valuable.” I stand up slowly, grabbing my jacket, and the envelope filled with my payment. “Thank you for your time, Morrison, I hope to hear from you soon about another job if I don’t manage to contact you first.” And on that final note, I leave our meeting spot, feeling heavier than before, wondering if I am truly making the right choices. 

October 23rd, 2019, 1:00 AM

The sound of scissors cutting through hair fills the small hotel room I’m staying in, the neon lights coming in from the street lighting up the main space. Standing over the bathroom sink, I angrily cut another strand of hair off my head, then another, then another, until I’m at the small length of a bob. I wipe away the tears of frustration that leaves my eyes, wanting more than nothing to throw the scissors across the room, or even at the mirror. I eventually settle for throwing it on to the bed and start to clean up the hair.  
Finishing that small task rather quickly, I settle on my main task of the night, redying my hair black. So far I’ve had to do it twice since leaving my family, this being the third time. By now, all of my roots were pure white, and all I felt was anger and that damn heaviness once again. I grab the hair dye and quickly get to work.  
Having done this quite a few times since I started dying my hair, at this point I knew every spot that needed touching up, and what shouldn’t be touched. I finish applying the hair dye after a good thirty minutes, which is much less than the hours it took when I was a teenager. I throw away the little excess I have, and start to get back to my work.

October 23rd, 2019, 2:30 AM  
“Oh there will come a soldier who carries a mighty sword, he will tear your cities down, oh lei, oh lai, oh lord…” I sing softly, rinsing my hair out in the tub for the third time. I check that the water is running clear, before stopping and drying my head. Getting up from the floor, I stumble slightly, hitting my arm against the wall, and hearing a crack far louder than expected. I turn and look at the damage I just caused, and stare at the now elbow-shaped hole in the wall.  
“Well, that’s certainly new to me. Guess I have to be careful with weight distribution now, and how much force I put behind anything…” Mumbling, I turn away and look towards the mirror. Unsurprisingly my hair is now fully black once more, but my features look gaunt compared to what I last remembered. “I should eat more… Later. I’ll do it later.” I promise to myself, feeling the weight in my body grow more.

November 2nd, 2019, 2:00 PM

“No, no, no, no, no!” I snarl, frantically looking around my room. It’s in shambles, and I know for a fact I wasn’t the one to leave it like this. I scramble to check under the beds where I made sure to hide my duffle bags. I pull them both out and quickly check that everything is in them.  
“God DAMNIT!” I cry out, realizing that they took one of my books. Luckily that book only had a small stack of cash, as I had the bright idea last month to transfer most of my funds into my bank account. “Fuck okay, it’s fine, everything is fine. Shit. FUCK!” crying out I grab my hair tightly and bring my knees to my chest, trying to suppress whatever emotion had decided to overtake me.  
“I can get through it. I can be on my own. I can do it. I can do it.” I repeat this mantra, over and over, until day turns into night, feeling like nothing has changed. I manage to crawl into bed around ten at night, making sure to set a notification on my phone to change motels for the next month.

December 18th, 2019, 7:36 PM

Getting up from my spot on the ground, I wipe away the blood gathering on my face. I start to walk out of the back alley I’d been dragged into, pain shooting up my leg with every step. I don’t know how I got there, but I managed to get back to the tiny motel room I'd been staying at and start to grab all of my things, packing my car as quickly as I can manage. Once everything is packed I sign out of the motel, and get into my car.  
I stare at the blurry letters on my phone, deciphering it barely, and dialing the right number after five different tries.  
“Morrison speaking, who's calling?” I hear the echoes voice through the phone and I barely manage to suppress my laugh of pure joy.  
“Morrison, it’s the walking library. The offer is still on the table?” I get straight to the point, as I start my car, and put my phone on speaker setting it in the tiny phone stand.  
“I told ya it was an offer that didn’t expire Alex. When do you want to meet your new boss?” I can barely hear Morrison through the ringing in my ears and the spots behind my eyes, but I answer slowly, or so I think.  
“How does now work? Send me the address, I’ll head on over to his place or yours. Be warned, I am… not in the best condition right now. I shouldn’t be driving, but it’s not like I can walk.” I chuckle lightly and try to focus on driving, waiting for the ping that he sent me a message.  
“What do you mean you shouldn’t be driving?!” the loud music cuts off and multiple voices coming through the phone suddenly, and I flinch, and stare at the road ahead.  
A new voice quickly joins one that’s distinct to a T, and no doubt about it that must be the new boss. “Hey, kid. Wherever you are, pull over, especially if you know you shouldn’t be driving.” Morrison’s voice comes over, and I feel myself relax more than I should while I drive.  
“Alex, I know you’re smarter than to drive drunk now/” I let out a loud laugh, cutting him off.  
“Oh, Morrison, you should know better. And it’s not because I had alcohol, it’s because I can't press down on the gas pedal without feeling my fractured femur move, it’s because I can barely see with the amount of blood dripping down my forehead, not including my concussion and cracked ribs.”  
Silence. Complete and utter silence from the other end of the phone, and I almost laugh.  
“Gods, Morrison! I swear if you hung up on me, I am wrecking your goddamn business by making a better one!”  
“Stay awake. Find a place to pull over and send your damn location in coordinates.” A different voice this time, one that sounds so much like mine, one without any remorse for their actions. I find myself nodding along to his voice, wondering how the hell I managed to get into this bullshit.

December 18th, 2019, 5:30 PM; Two hours before

It had just finished getting past dusk when I realized I might not make it out of this encounter with a client. They had asked for information on a subspecies of Behemoth, which for anyone wondering they are a lesser demon known for their insatiable appetite and cannibalistic tendencies. It was supposed to be a simple trade of information for cash, but once it started to get dark, their true intentions lit up like a building filled with explosives.  
Making a break for the entrance of the alleyway, I get a headstart, but that doesn't mean much when one of them blocks the entrance to the opening.  
He stares down at me, and I push down the ugly thought of ‘I am going to die, and everything will have been for nothing.’ Backing up a step or two, I glance behind me at the other two. The sudden force of being tackled backward has me cry out loudly, and I hear a sharp crack as my head hits the pavement, a ringing immediately taking place over any words the men above me could have said.  
Swinging my arm at the man on top of me with as much force as I can, I watch as he flies across the alley, and I start to scramble up, before being shoved back down onto the ground. One of them stands above me, taking a metal bat and swings it against my right leg. Pain erupts quickly, spreading like a wildfire through my nerves. I can't hear my own scream over the ringing in my head, and my vision blurs, and I feel the bat swing again, this time colliding with my ribs. Everything goes black for what feels like an eternity, and I feel that heaviness grow more, realising I might not be able to take Morrison up on that stupid offer, or even finish my own goals if I don't WAKE UP.  
“Not gonna…. Oh we should have… come on!” bits and pieces of the conversation between the two men left flooded my mind, opening my eyes, I managed to look over at both of them, not really knowing how much time had passed. One of them sees me move and grins, crouching down beside my leg.  
“Oh, so she awakens! How was your nap girly?” He presses down on my leg, and it feels like hot coals pressing into my bones. I manage to give him a steely look as I try to sit up, before coughing violently as I feel my ribs protest against that action. Chuckling he eases up on the pressure and continues. “Now, that we have you listening and responsive, tell us what you know about the sons of Sparda, and how to defeat them. In fact, why don't you just share all of the secrets of killing a half-demon, since there are likely to be more.”  
“Sons… of Sparda? Sadly, I do... do not, have that information. Try again later.” My words come out jumbled, blood and bile rising in my throat. ‘There's no way I'm giving that information away. For the most part, I have come to the conclusion that most half-demons are functionally immortal. Guess I don't fit that description, huh. Must be an outlier…’ my thoughts wander for a long moment, and a blink and the next thing I know, the one who had my arm in his grasp is gripping my face tightly, and I'm sitting up.  
“You goddamn bitch. Listen hear,” he pauses, licking his lips and motioning between him and the second guy. “We know you know something, so why don't you tell us before we mess up that pretty face of yours, eh?” The look in his eyes says something entirely else, and I know that no matter what I do, I must NOT tell them anything. Instead of answering, I stay silent, and the bigger one sighs, pulling his fist back, his fist ramming itself against my face, and my temple hits the wall, a cut opening from the jagged edge of brick just above my eye.  
Groaning loudly, I turn my head back to look at them, both of their faces looking fuzzy and out of focus. Realizing rather quickly that throughout this entire thing, their friend still hasn’t gotten up. I smirk, and start to laugh, and shake my head, and raise my hand pointing to the entrance of the alley. “Your friend really couldn't take a hit could he?”  
As they both turn, I take the opportunity to grab the side of the smaller ones, the one who held me down the second time, and slam his head against the wall, feeling his skull crush underneath the pressure, blood dripping against the wall as the slumps against it.  
The bigger one turns back to me, and I reach up and grab his shirt, pulling him down to my level with such force I hear his knees make a sharp crunching sound, grabbing his head after I grip his hair in a vice-like grip, slamming it against the wall just like the smaller one. His head cracks almost as quickly as the others had, and I stare at the three bodies before me, two of which I had done intentionally.  
I bring a hand to my face, slowly wiping the blood away as I struggle to stand. “I have to get back. Can’t stay here.”

December 18th, 8:00 PM

I listen to the voice on the phone and pull over once I can, which takes about three minutes, resulting in me ending up in an empty car swap parking lot along the highway.  
“Are you still there? Alex?” I focus on the call hearing the panicked voice of Morrison and hearing a few others discussing something intelligible in the background.  
Coughing aggressively, and feeling blood come up, I grab my phone, pulling it off the stand, and unbuckling quickly, and opening the door as quickly as I can.  
After coughing up a continuous amount of blood onto the pavement beside my car, I answer slowly.  
“I’m here. Not doing to… to great. God blood, is gonna, gonna be a bitch to get out. Had to find a place without other people. Sending coordinates shortly.” I stare at the phone in my hand, and slowly go into the messaging app, pulling up Morrison's contact, and click the button to share the location.  
From the other end, I hear a buzz and a sigh of relief. “Damn Alyx, you managed to get a fair bit from your motel. We’ll get there shortly, just don't move.”  
I laugh lowly, staring down at my leg, “oh don't worry bout that… legs fuckin shot, cant feel it. Goddamn metal bats.”  
Breathing heavily, I wait, hanging up on Morrison when I hear a low hum fill the air, which usually indicates demonic activity. Sitting against the car, with the door wide open, I feel myself start to fall back into the abyss known as sleep, hearing voices approach me as my eyes close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that this chapter is finally done being edited, here you guys go! I have no idea how many people are going to read this but I hope whoever does enjoy's it! So my updating schedule is absolutely awful right now, as I don't actually have one. I have a good few chapters already written but they are under heavy editing while I work on more chapters. So it's likely that once things are done being edited for a chapter ill post it within that week? I'll try to post at least every two-three weeks!


	3. New Challenges, and Old Ones Merge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vergil would have to say he's not overly fond of Christmas parties, especially with how badly this one goes. This chapter follows along with the events from the end of the last chapter, taken from a different point of view.

Vergil's POV--

December 18th, 2019, 7:10 PM 

This early Christmas party has to be one of the most annoying ideas that my brother has thought of since we returned from the underworld five months ago. Despite this, I find myself enjoying the company as I sit away from the rest of the party-goers, reading a novel.   
“Come on Vergil! Get a little loose, you deserve it after finally getting that stick out of your ass after twenty years!” Looking up from the book, I stare up at Dante in annoyance and wonder if stabbing him again will shut him up.   
“I don't suppose by getting loose, you mean for me to get drunk like you're planning on doing shortly?” I quip, and continue to read, all the while watching how everyone interacts. Lady and Trish are having a conversation with Nico, discussing the possibility of her creating more weapons for them on a later mission. That talk seems to be going well, Nico looks far more excited at the prospect of creating more “Art”. Nero is talking with Kyrie by the front desk, admittedly already a little tipsy. I shake my head internally, watching my son flirt with her, as Kyrie laughs politely accepting any praise she's given. ‘Nero.... despite how you grew up, you are better than anything I could have asked for. Now that I am here, I will try to stay in your life’ I think to myself, putting down my book for a moment, and grabbing the bookmark from the back.   
A loud ringing fills the room, Dante groaning loudly from his conversation with Morrison. “God, just one night without our phones going off, would that be so hard to manage?!” he throws his hands in the air, and huffs out a loud breath, and we all look at one another, wondering whose phone could be ringing.   
“Mines off,” Nico states, pulling out her phone as evidence, showing the black screen. The others do the same, each of them pulling on out, and even I check to see if the one Dante gifted me was ringing.   
“Not me either. Morrison?” I stand up and walk over to both of them, as Morrison grabs the phone from his pocket with a curse, and answers it.   
“Morrison speaking, who's calling?” he answers the phone, annoyed at the unconventional timing of the call. The expression shifts to one of surprise, and Nico and Nero enter a quiet conversation between the two of them, wondering who would call Morrison around this time, especially with a surprise.   
He puts the phone on speaker, as he answers the next question, “I told ya it was an offer that didn’t expire Alex. When do you want to meet your new boss?” he puts his hand over the mic and continues to talk while waiting for the other person on the line to answer. “It's the walking library, the girl who's been giving you that intel on what demon you'll be up against, she's taking the job you offered months ago, back in September.”  
We all wait for a few moments before we hear a raspy voice coming through the speaker, which immediately sets off internal alarms in my head. “How does now work? Send me the address, I’ll head on over to his place or yours. Be warned, I am… not in the best condition right now. I shouldn’t be driving, but it’s not like I can walk.” Dante turns off the music as we hear that and Morrison quickly replies worriedly.   
“What do you mean you shouldn’t be driving?!” and everyone starts talking at once,   
“Whoa, are we getting a mission already?”  
“Where is she at, we could probably pick her up if she shouldn’t be driving.”  
I raise a hand to my temples rubbing it in exasperation, and grab the Yamato, just in case we do have to save this girl.  
Dante quickly takes the phone from Morrison and silences everyone raising a hand so that everyone would kindly shut up and let him talk. “Hey, kid. Wherever you are, pull over, especially if you know you shouldn’t be driving.”  
Morrison cuts Dante off, quickly, and Dante sends him a glare. “Alex, I know you’re smarter than to drive drunk now/” Harsh laughter rings from the speaker of the phone, cutting Morrison off this time.   
“Oh, Morrison, you should know better. And it’s not because I had alcohol, it’s because I can't press down on the gas pedal without feeling my fractured femur move, it’s because I can barely see with the amount of blood dripping down my forehead, not including my concussion and cracked ribs.” We all stop and stare at the phone for a moment, maybe for too long, and I am positive most of us are thinking along the lines of ‘how the hell did she get into that mess, and why is she calling Morrison instead of an ambulance.’  
I watch as Dante and the others start getting ready to head out, and Nero sobers up quickly at those words before she speaks again. “Gods, Morrison! I swear if you hung up on me, I am wrecking your goddamn business by making a better one!” I grab the phone from Dante before he could respond to her, sighing that they already made her think that Morrison had hung up.   
“Stay awake. Find a place to pull over and send your damn location in coordinates.” After saying that I can hear the rustling of clothes, and rattling breathing, for at least three minutes, until I hear the car park and everything turns off. It's quiet for a few moments, and Morrison snatches his phone back.  
"Are you still there? Alex?”He practically shouts into the phone, trying to get any noise, and I almost wish that he hadn't said anything from the noise coming out of the speaker. Its harsh coughing sounding wet and painful, the gagging and harsh breaths, she struggles to open the car door. After a moment she responds.   
“I’m here. Not doing to… to great. God blood, is gonna... gonna be a bitch to get out. Had to find a place without other people. Sending coordinates shortly.” She gets to the point immediately, something that I can respect in a situation like this. For a human, she’s doing fairly well in this scenario.   
Morrison sighs in relief after getting the notification, “Damn Alyx, you managed to get a fair bit from your motel. We’ll get there shortly, just don't move.”  
“Oh, don't worry bout that… legs fuckin shot, can’t feel it. Goddamn metal bats.” we hear a click and the line goes dead.   
Dante stands up, and immediately takes charge of the situation. “Alright Kyrie, start grabbing some towels and bandages, anything that can function for medical supplies lady, clear off my desk, just shove everything off of it. Trish makes sure my desk is actually cleaned off, Morrison, stay here. Nico, Nero, Vergil, and I will actually go and grab her. Nico, since she was driving, you will be the one driving her car here, along with Nero, while Vergil and I use the yamato to bring us back to Devil May Cry. Everybody got that?” He stands and waits for everyone to have any objections, but for the most part, he gets nods, from those that are staying here, getting everything ready. This isn't something that's new around here, because despite his tendency to want to jump into every situation, he can actually come up with a solid plan.  
Dante turns to Nico, Nero, and I, and Morrison reads off the coordinates. Using those, I pull out the yamato and open a portal to our destination. Stepping through the portal I can immediately see a single car parked haphazardly, with a figure slumped up next to the open drivers-side door.   
“Well, surprisingly this might be one of the easier cases of retrieving someone,” Dante mumbles and starts to jog over, and we all follow. Nero points out the blood splatter on the ground, and the blood dripping down her face, from a cut on her temple, and from a broken nose.   
“Damn, that is not a fun picture.” Nico crouches down next to her, pulling her head off of the car, and cursing and backing away.   
“Got a mighty big head wound on the back as well. Looks like she was bashed around pretty good. Nero, check that all her shits there in her car.”  
He sighs, before turning to Dante, “Any idea what's supposed to be in the car? She's literally called ‘the walking library’.” Dante shrugs and goes to pick her up from under her legs, and I stop him, using the Yamato to block him.   
“Brother, I wouldn't be so hasty. Look at her leg, there's heavy bleeding coming from the right leg. I don't suggest picking her up from her position just yet until we can get to a temporary fix to that, that won't cause her to bleed out on us.” I drop the yamato and put it back on my belt loop.   
“And to answer your question son, Morrison mentioned that she had only ever held two duffle bags whenever she moved, so that's likely going to be the extent of her items, maybe a coat as well.”  
I crouch down next to her, and look her over once again, taking in her features, and recognizing some. I put that information away for later, we can't afford to worry about it right now.  
“Dante grabs her other shoulder as gently as you can, and on three we will lift her fully from her shoulders. It's the best option we have that won't mess up her leg further.” Maneuvering my arm under her left side, wrapping my hand around her side, and waiting for Dante to do the same. He sighs and copies my movement.   
“On three. One… two… Three!” unanimously we both rise to our feet on three and manage to keep her from falling forwards for backward. Unfortunately, for both of us, she starts to bleed more from her leg, and I can see the faint imprint of bone jutting out of her leg.   
“Son, we'll see you and Nico when you get back to Devil May Cry, we need to hurry.” Opening the yamato with my free hand, I open a portal and head through it with Dante. Immediately once we walk through he takes charge once again.   
“Were back! Alright, kyrie everything ready? Vergil help me place her onto my desk.” I do it, and once done I step back and watch as Kyrie and Dante make short work of the head wounds, and even set her nose back in place. In total that takes a good thirty minutes, with Lady stanching the bleeding from her leg while they work on the head.   
They move to the leg next. “Lady, back away for a second, Kyrie grab the scissors or help me get her pants off. Goddamnit, it's leather.” Dante curses loudly, but Kyrie grabs Trish and has her help take off the girl's pants. They manage it faster than when it was just Dante and Kyrie working on it. Focusing my attention on Morrison for a moment, he looks a bit sick, watching the others deal with one of the people he's been working with for months. “Ya know, she figured out that there were half-demons fairly quickly, and pointed out how there were more. She said that you,” Morrison motions at both Dante and I before continuing, “Were absolutely stupid for letting the one factor that made it known that you were half-demons stand out. She mentioned that if you shared a single brain cell between the three of you, Nero is included in this, that you all would have dyed your hair.”  
I look back at the table, for a moment catching Trish opening Alex’s leg further, to stare at the bone.   
“Dante, this entire femur is shattered! the best option is to amputate the damn leg entirely, I mean look at all these fragments.” Trish tries to keep her voice down, but it doesn't work well. Nero and Nico finally make their way inside, each of them holding a duffle bag, with Nero holding the girl's coat. Nico backs up the moment she sees the open leg, gagging at the sight.   
“Alright, that just ain't right. That's downright inhumane Dante!” She shouts and sets down her duffle bag and heads to the backroom, probably to get to the booze. Nero, unsurprisingly just winces, and sets down the bag next to the stairs. “I have to agree with Nico on this one, Dante. I don't think that can be saved.” Morrison suddenly stands and goes over to the duffle bag that Nero set down.   
“I might have a way for us to not amputate, but it's gonna take some drastic measures, boys.” Morrison keeps digging through, until he pulls out a sketchbook, and starts flipping through it. “You see, Alex said she had written down some hardcore spells in the form of drawings so that way no one would be able to read them but her. The only issue is that for her to use the one she needs to, she has to be awake.”   
“Morrison, old pal, that sounds like an abomination of a plan. I say we should just amputate and get Nico to start building a prosthetic.” Dante turns to face Morrison, his features twisted in anger. “We are not waking this girl up just so she can MAYBE perform a spell that will restore her leg. Okay. we can put it to a vote. Who votes that we wake her up and go through with the spell?”  
Trish, Morrison, Kyrie, and I raise our hands, and Dante sighs.   
“Goddamn it. How do you propose we wake her up then Morrison since you are oh so wise.” Dante, along with Kyrie lady and Trish, walks away from Alex. Morrison steps forward, and pulls something out from the rings, and cracks it open in front of her nose.   
She jolts forward with a cry, her hand reaching down to the desk supporting her upper half. I stand up from my seat and walk forward wondering how she will react to the situation.   
“Morrison.” The word leaves her lips with a harsh intake of breath, and she steadies herself once again. “Book. NOW.” The last word out of her lips sounds like an animalistic snarl, making Nico, peak her head out from the kitchen.   
I quirk my eyebrow up as Morrison hands her the sketchbook, and she flips through it, until it lands on a detailed drawing of the Qliphoth.   
“Found it.” She reaches a hand outward, motioning towards her coat, the one in Nero's arms. “Come forth.” From the front pocket of the jacket, a pendant flies over to her, hovering over her outstretched hand, as she starts to chant in an unfamiliar language, the pendant lighting up in response. Slowly, the bone pieces itself together as she speaks, and I find myself wondering how she came across this spell in the first place. I stare at the cut on her temple and watch as the skin slowly knits itself back together, and before anyone realizes it, she finishes. The pendant stops hovering, going completely still once it drops into her hand, and she closes her sketchbook, before fully standing on both legs.   
“Alright, now that's just cool. Where were you when he lost his arm?” Nico breaks the silence completely, invading what little personal space Alex might have had. Alex turns to stare at Nico for a moment, her face completely impassive.   
“Most likely doing research and gathering my information. I have spent my entire life gathering information after all.” Speaking in an icy tone, she grips the book tightly in her hands. “Considering I don’t know who any of you are, I would appreciate you not staring at me like I am an experiment.” Everybody gets the message loud and clear, and they immediately look away, for the most part, stealing glances here and there. I speak up, squinting at her.   
“Where did you learn how to perform spells as complicated as this, child?” She turns and immediately the room feels much smaller for a moment or two before I remember that I am still the king of the underworld and while I may be half-human, I do not have to bow to her.  
“Firstly, I am twenty-nine years old, almost thirty. I have not been a child since I was twelve, you petulant fool of a half breed.” She snarls, and turns towards her bags, and returns the sketchbook to its place.   
“What did you just call me human?” I growl out, placing a hand on the yamato. Dante however does not seem to want us to fight. Stepping in between the two of us, he raises his hands.   
“Alright you two, no need to fight on your first meeting. You can fight later. Now you,” Dante turns to her first, putting his hands on his hips as he faces her. “You are the walking library correct? The one I offered a job to in early September. What made you finally take the offer?”  
“Oh, simple really. It gives me time to work on gathering even more information on this world and the next, and it makes me be one of the closest people to the legendary sons of Sparda. I have to say, your reputation was the reason I ended up in that state. You're lucky I value information more than my life, otherwise, all half-breeds would be dead.” A spike of dread goes down all of our spines, especially mine as I consider her words. Dante sputters for a moment, completely thrown off guard.   
“Excuse me? You mean you got like that because people wanted to know about us?” he points between himself Nero and I, and I internally sigh.   
Groaning out loud, I smack Dante upside the head. “That's quite obvious Dante. It was quite implicit in her wording. However, I am curious as to how you knew our father's name, and his grandfather's name.” I motion to Nero, who waves slightly, looking back at Kyrie for support.   
“Oh. That's easy as well, you're the only recorded half-demons. Most of the others are speculation since they actually hid the trait that lets them be known as half-demons.” She stares us down and shakes her head. “That being said, Dante,” She turns her head to face him, as she looks him up and down. “We need to discuss payment as well as the possibility of a room. From what Morrison told me, you had already decided my pay, but the room was negotiable. Is it still negotiable?”  
Shrugging, Dante responds casually, to her, and I start to head up to my own room, not wanting to deal with the rest of tonight's‘ festivities’.

December 19th, 2019 10:00 AM

Hearing the creaking of the door opening, I get up immediately and look towards it, finding that it's just Dante. “What do you want?” I groan, pushing my hair back, and getting out of bed.   
“Alex will be staying with us from now, courtesy of her job. She will get a fifth of everything, pull an extra hundred each month as her pay. I wanted to let you know since the only spare room left is the one next to yours.” Dante quickly leaves the door open, and I follow him out into the hallway.   
“Alright, that shouldn't be an issue,” I respond quietly, following him down the stairs, and to the general lobby. After a few minutes of dealing with silence, I pull out my book from last night and start to read it on the couch by the stairway. I don't know how long I read for but it quickly ends when running footsteps are taken down the stairs. Looking up in annoyance, I see Alex practically flying down the stairs, skipping down the steps with practiced ease, and somehow managing to hold a laptop at the same time.   
“DANTE!” Once she reaches the bottom of the stairs she sprints over to Dante, showing him her screen. “I finished the website! Everything is fully fleshed out, your phone and prices are listed as well under the column to the right.” She continues to rant about the website, not even looking at Dante at this point. He looks up at her explaining and looks at me, mouthing ‘help me’. I chuckle and stand up, walking over to the desk.   
“Alex. Your words are too complicated for my simple-minded brother, you might have to dumb it down for him.” I go behind my brother and look at the screen, squinting at it. “Did you make this entire thing by yourself?” She nods, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet from Dante's other side.   
“Only took me last night to make it! I figured it would be best for me to get to work as soon as possible, speaking of which, it doesn't look like either of you have had any breakfast, so I'll go make some.” She walks away to the kitchen, and we quietly listen to the sound of breakfast being cooked before looking at each other.   
“She's going to wear herself out sooner or later, and don't look at me like that Vergil! I mentioned it last night, and she gave me a nod, and now this morning it's done?! I don't know how but damn is she going to make us get some more money.”  
“I suppose so. Especially with something like this,” I motion towards the website page, before looking back down at Dante. “She put us out there and made sure to fix your stupid errors in the previous advertisements that you made. Also, look at that, she made forms for people to fill out, so that way she would have an easier time figuring out what type of demon we’re facing.”  
“Nice.” Dante stares at the screen for a few more moments, before turning his head towards the kitchen. “Think she's done yet? We haven’t had an actual home-cooked meal from anyone other than Kyrie lately, and that's every couple of weeks.”  
“It's unlikely that she's done already, she just started cooking Dante, you know that food takes longer than that to make and cook, unlike takeout.” Sighing, I stand up straight and start to head over to the kitchen.   
“Where are you going, Verg?”  
“To help, since you want the food to go faster. I suggest you come as well since you were the one to offer her a place here.” opening the door to the kitchen I walk in and survey what she's got done so far.   
“Oh hey Vergil. I'm almost done with the eggs, but the toaster is being a little bitch and barely cooking the toast. Little asshole.” She grumbles glaring at the toaster in disdain, before turning around to face me.   
She has her hair tied up in a bun and is wearing a black tank top with blue shorts that are covered in flour, and egg. She's also stirring something up in one of Dante's many mixing bowls.   
“We might be able to replace it later since we already paid the bills this month. What are you stirring up?”  
“ Buttermilk pancakes, making a triple batch since both of you are half-demons, therefore your metabolism is far higher than humans resulting in you either always being hungry, or never hungry.” She pauses in her rant, turning to the door. “Just come in and help. Otherwise, I'm not going to use it at all Dante!”  
He sheepishly opens the door, followed by Nero, and Alex just sighs and continues stirring. “How did you know it was us, it could have been Lady or Trish, possibly even Nico.” Nero leans against the doorway, wearing his prosthetic, and I'm hit with a sudden wave of guilt staring at it. ‘You took his arm from him, he will never forgive you.’ A dark voice whispers, and I mentally shake it away. It's gotten easier now that I've spent some time working through everything, however, I know that it will get easier over time, dealing with guilt, and obsession. Alex’s answer pierces through my inner thoughts, and I watch as she simply waves her wisk lightly as she talks.  
“As it is, you two were the most likely, however the reason that I actually know is…” She stops short for a moment, thinking. “Actually now that I think about it more, I guess it was just a gut feeling. I've been getting those far more than I would like lately.” She stops stirring the batter, and dips her finger in it, tasting it. With a slight pop, she pulls her finger out and thinks.   
“A little more honey, and we should be good to start cooking it. Vergil, can you please grab the frying pan next to you and grease it while I finish this? Nero, please deal with the toast, and Dante, finish the eggs please.” With those words, we all get to work, and I move into her area, turning the correct burner on for her to make the pancakes.   
While I am wary of her, it's only due to the amount of knowledge she holds. Maybe it's nothing, but I will keep gathering information on her myself, throughout the next few weeks, maybe months. I will get to the bottom of this nagging sensation that she's familiar to me.


	4. Settling Into A New Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alyx just joined devil may cry! now that she's finally settling into a new place, what will happen?

January 3rd, 2020, 3:39 AM

It started slowly, me getting used to living with two other half-demons. Of course, I can't leave out Nero, as while he's a part of the mobile branch, he spends a fair share of his time between here and Fortuna with Kyrie. Not that any of them know about me also being a half-demon as well, but surprisingly it's fairly easy to pretend to be human while around them, as they use their strength constantly. 

Sitting up from my bed, I get up slowly and grab the box of black hair dye that I have started keeping under my bed. I have to re-dye my hair every month now, specifically my roots, however, I have only been able to use unnatural strength, no other abilities showing up, unlike with what Vergil, Dante, and Nero have. I sigh deeply and start heading to the bathroom across the hall, stopping just before I open the door. “Why can't I just tell them? I mean if I hide this longer, I'll lose their trust. That's not something I want to lose, I actually enjoy their company. Despite Vergil's distance from most people, he's wonderful at holding an intelligent conversation, Dantes jokes get a little annoying, but he is always trying to make sure someones smiling. Nero’s sarcasm has become one of my favorite things about him.” I sigh, once again, and open the bathroom door, locking it behind me. ‘I can't tell them yet. I myself don't even know all the details. They could help, but then they would treat me like a child, rather than an ally. I see them do this constantly with Nero, however, that's less to do with his age, and more to do with him being related to them…’ 

I get to work on setting up the dye, pulling my hat off to reveal the start of the white hair. I eye the trimming scissors on the sink and look at how long my hair has grown since October. “It'll just get in the way.” I grab the scissors and start to cut my hair to just above my shoulders, then get back to dying my hair. As I wait for the full time to run out, voices echo throughout the hallway reverbing into the bathroom almost perfectly.

“Verg, it's 3:50 AM, why are you getting me up this early?”

“I was doing my rounds of check-ins to make sure no one was kidnapped, or murdered, and Alex isn't even in her room.”

Did you ever think she might just be downstairs, or maybe just couldn't sleep and decided to go on a walk? I dunno if that's entirely safe, but whatever. She is literally almost thirty, she's not even remotely a child, unlike Nero.”

“We carried her here in our arms because she got attacked for knowing anything about us, do you really think I'm concerned about her age? She’s already made it clear that information is more important than her life.”

A loud sigh fills the empty hallway, and I hear Dante shuffle out of his room and into the hallway. “Fine, I'll help look around the house for her, well start on the ground floor alright?” Vergil doesn't reply verbally, so I assume he nodded in response. The creaking of the floorboards fade, and I check the time, realizing that while listening to them talk I went over my time limit. I start to wash my hair in the tub and sigh, starting to hum a light tune while I do so, just to calm my nerves. I finish rather quickly, and just step into the actual shower for a bit, aggressively rubbing my eyes to make them look red and puffy. I step out after a minute, figuring that by now they should have heard the pipes from downstairs, and dry my hair, making sure no dye comes out. I get dressed then pick up the rest of my hair off the floor, just as I hear them climb up the stairs. Opening the door I step out of the bathroom, still drying my hair. I see them walk towards me as I close the door to the bathroom, and wave lightly. 

“Morning you two. Didn't think you would be up this early Dante.” I joke lightly, turning towards them fully. Vergil looks impassive, but Dante looks relieved to see me. 

“Hey, and me neither. Vergil had thought you had been kidnapped, so he asked me to help him look around again. He and I switch doing rounds every night.” Dante explains it, and I make a small noise in confirmation. 

“Ah, alright, I'll keep my nighttime activities to a minimum then boys. Or at least, I'll leave a note so neither of you gets worried. Sound good?” I ask them both, Vergil and Dante both nodding, Dante quickly shuffling back to his room for the night. I turn to Vergil before heading into my room, catching him watching me. I open the door and leave it open moving behind it, leaving a silent offer hanging in the air. 

A look of confusion passes quickly on his face, stepping forward for a moment, and then fully coming in. I close the door behind him and go over to the dresser, pulling out one of my many sketchbooks, this one not being used for magic, just art. Grabbing a few pens from the top of the dresser, I walk over to the bed and lean up against the headboard turning to face him. I pat the side of the bed next to me, noticing that he was carrying another novel.

“Company?” I ask quietly, hoping the one word would get my entire point across. For a moment he stands there and stares, before moving forward, and getting onto the bed next to me. I open the sketchbook at the same time he opens his book. 

January 9th, 2020, 9:20 AM

Trying to make as little noise as possible, even making sure that the kitchen door was locked so that no one interrupted. Since I've been here, we've had at least three little ‘jobs’, most of them being relatively easy to do, but the one big job they just got back from was harder on the main crew than anything else. That being said, I figured I would bake something for them, although staring at the recipe book for making handmade frosting I feel like I'm relearning Enochian all over again.   
“I feel so god damn stupid. Why does it require so many things?!” I whisper/scream to myself, really hoping that I wasn't imagining things when I locked the door so that nobody would actually catch me worrying about them, which is something that Vergil and I share.

I go back to work on the frosting, and after ten minutes, I am staring at frosting, not ingredients. “What is this magic?” I mutter, horrified, as I stare down at it. I take a small bit of it, just enough to make some wording and darken it with black food dye, before pulling the cakes out of the fridge. They've been cooling off for the last half hour, so they should be ready to frost. I made four different pans so that each cake will have two layers. I start with the first cake, and decorate it with black vines, on the sides, then with the other there are flowers blooming on the sides. However across both of the tops reads, “Good job not dying”. I smile lightly, and start to clean up the kitchen, looking at the time. The clock reads 9: 50 AM, and I look at the mess I made and sigh. “At least I should be able to make some noise now, considering dishes are always noisy.” The clanking of pots and pans fill the quiet building, and I wince at the amount of noise now filling the building. I put everything away once I finish washing it. Stretching I reach up to hopefully pop my back, frowning in annoyance when it doesn't work. Walking towards the door, I hear multiple people shuffling down the stairs, some voices louder than others. 

“Why did we all decide to come downstairs early again?” recognizing Nero’s tired voice I chuckle to myself and smile when I hear Vergil answer him.

“Alex asked us all to meet her downstairs around ten. She probably has a surprise for us all if I could guess from her insistence at all of us being here at ten am.” I unlock the kitchen door when I hear that, and pick up each cake slowly, making sure they are balanced perfectly in each hand.

Kicking open the door as gently as I can, as I can't use my hands, I walk over to Dante's desk and set both of the cakes down in order of the writing. I step away for a moment, going back into the kitchen to grab plastic cups and spoons.   
“Now you better not be eating it with your hands when I get back out there!” I yell as I open the door for a second time, and set down the cups and the spoons, just enough for the entire crew. “Alright! Here's how this is gonna work, each cup is your serving size. Make sure each person gets at least one cupful.” I grab the first cup, and shove it down on the cake, then pull the cup away, putting a spoon in and handing it to Nero. “Enjoy your gift for still being alive!” I shout behind me as I head upstairs to my room.

“But what about..?” Nero pauses in his words as I continue to walk away. I climb the stairs with ease, skipping a couple of steps, and heading into my room, and locking the door behind me. “I need to distance myself from them. Attachments are bad. It will only lead to a quick demise in this world.” I repeat this as I walk over to my dresser, grabbing my binder, a t-shirt, and pants. Getting dressed quickly, I let out a shaky breath as I looked in the mirror, wondering if this is what I really want to be doing today. Compared to what I usually look like, I look like a normal adult, but there's one thing that will seal the deal. I grab a beanie from on top of the dresser, and put it on, tucking all of my hair underneath it. “There. Now I'm ready for info gathering. Specifically fieldwork. I should still bring my spellbook, and my pendant.” I mutter, unlocking the door and heading down the stairs with my things in a satchel I bought around Christmas. 

As I walk down the stairs, I contemplate the gait and voice I should use while I’m out, eventually deciding on going an octave lower, with a slow and steady gait. I reach the bottom of the stairs, almost a completely different looking person. Everyones still enjoying the cake, but a few look up as I walk down the stairs and do a double-take. 

“Holy shit, you were gone ten minutes and you look completely different!” Dante immediately does a spit take and starts swearing. I roll my eyes, and shrug, adding the voice along with it. 

“Not entirely sure what or who you're talkin’ about man.” I grin as I walk across to the entrance. “Kidding Dante, it's just me. I'm heading out on a reconnaissance mission, specifically asked for me to deal with it too, so it's odd.” I shrug and grab my coat, throwing it on, and pulling the pendant out, looking at it for a moment. 

“Whoa hold your horses, what do you mean they asked for you? Also, it's barely ten-fifteen in the morning, what could you possibly be doing this early?” I can tell that Dante is genuinely curious and is not actually trying to hinder my work. 

Acknowledging his question I turned back around as I put the pendant on, feeling a gentle hum settle into my bones. “It's a simple one, just getting paid to find out shit about some ‘haunted house’ in the more shady part of town. I was asked to be there by twelve, and since I know it's the shady part of town, I decided it would be best to do some light info gathering before the whole thing while I walk there.” I pull out my phone as it buzzes, staring down at the text I just received and typing a reply with one hand as I stare at the crew. “Does that sate your curiosity boss man?” I snort, finally looking back down at my phone and raising my eyebrow at it. “Well, there goes my free time beforehand.” I turn and start to head out before anyone says anything else. 

January 9th, 2020, 11:15 AM

‘Hey, I need to meet up earlier than discussed, can you make it? I'll add an extra hundred to the payment.’ I reread the text, as I stand at the front steps of the supposed haunted house. A sharp increase in footsteps tells me that my client just arrived.   
“Hey! Sorry about being late, even after I had to change our meet up time!” My client stares at me, a tall but lanky man with bright yellow hair. 

I sigh, but look him over again. “It's alright, I wasn't that busy anyway. So, you just want me to investigate this house, apart from the digging I did on its past? I have that information right here.” I reach in my satchel and pull out an envelope, handing it to the client. 

He grabs it and opens the envelope, excitement overtaking his features as he moves from foot to foot. “This is perfect! But sadly yes, you are right, that I wanted you to actually go inside and do a general check to make sure it's not too bad. I am looking to buy this place after all, and with this,” he holds up my research with a genuine grin, “I should be able to make the price affordable, and turn it into something great!”

I nod at his enthusiasm and start to head inside. I look back at the client, who stays away from the front door but stays on the porch. “Alright, I'll do a full sweep, let you know the extent of the damage, and then leave. But first, I want my money.” I hold out my hand for the envelope, and he nods, pulling an envelope out of his pocket, handing it to me. I open it and check the amount, nodding. “Alright, I should be back out in like ten to twenty minutes tops.” I open the door, and head in, looking around at the opening. 

Despite its outward appearance, the inside is in surprisingly good condition. Walking into the next part of the house, I take notice of the claw marks around the windows in the living room, before heading out to the kitchen. This room looks fine, but the smell of rotting flesh permeates the air in the room. I take a deep breath once I'm out of that room, and check the downstairs bathroom before going upstairs. Its tub is filled with water, but there's no damage to the overall room. I shake my head and head up the stairs to look at the rest of the house. The stairs aren't damaged, just very creaky, and none of the upper rooms are damaged. Once I've checked everywhere, I head downstairs, and back outside to my waiting client. Upon exiting the house, I see my client sitting on the stairs waiting. 

“Alright, so in my search, nothing really was wrong with the integrity of the house, the only odd things being a full bathtub on the bottom floor's bathroom, claw marks on the windowsill in the living room, and the weird rotting meat smell in the kitchen. But you should be a good man, thanks for your business. I wish you luck with buying it.” I leave the area in relative peace, headed back to Devil May Cry after spending some time in the park in the main part of the city. I hum lightly as I open the door, finding myself catching the tail end of a fight between Kyrie, and Nero, with both Dante and Vergil eavesdropping from the stairs like children. 

“Well, how do I know that she won't sweep you off your feet, Nero!? You spend a lot of time here, and you keep saying that it's for bonding time with your father and uncle, but now you're practically living here instead of with me! Now is it her?”  
Nero pinches the bridge of his nose with his hand and sighs deeply. “Kyrie, no, there is nothing going on between Alex and I. Absolutely nothing other than us being coworkers, and I have no desire to date her whatsoever…” he turns at the opening of the door, and so does Kyrie, and I can't help but chuckle.

“Are you two going to continue to argue over something pointless or do I need to end the argument for you children?” I stare them both down, before continuing. “Kyrie, I have the same interest in fucking your boyfriend as I do with sleeping with a cactus. There is no romantic love between him and I, nor any other type of love. Love is just a chemical our brain creates to stimulate serotonin, and it usually runs out after three years. Now, darling girl,” I walk forward and grab her chin gently. “Don't cry, or worry, as he only has his heart set on you. Not even a succubus could deter him from you. Amantium irae amoris integratio est. The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love.” I let go and started to walk towards the stairs, stopping in front of Dante.   
“Here. This is what I earned from my gig today.” I push past him and Vergil, heading up to my room.

“...did that just happen?” I hear Nero ask, his voice filled with confusion. “Cause that was not what I was expecting when she got back.”

February 2nd, 2020, 3:00 PM

I stare at yesterday's news from my hometown, watching as my family house burnt to the ground. My breath stops short in my chest, and my mind raced, as I stare into the flames, licking across the old willow tree. I close my laptop with a sharp snap, Dante looking up from his magazine to find the sound.  
“You good Alex?” he asks, once he realizes the sound came from my direction. I nod slowly, staring down at the computer in my hands.   
“My parents died yesterday. I just saw the news clip. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about it actually. I should be feeling something, right?” I murmur quietly, looking up for a moment, and finding both Dante and Vergil looking at me with raised eyebrows, then looking back at each other.

“Do you need a day to yourself, or?” Dante starts, and I wave him off, opening my laptop again. 

“No, there's no need. I just wasn't expecting this so soon. I suppose fate saw it fit, or a demon, considering it was a house fire.” I shrug, and stand, taking my laptop with me as I try to discern if what I'm feeling is guilt or even any type of thing for them at all. “At least they died together.” I muse as I climb the stairs, trying so hard to feel something, anything other than this emptiness in my chest. I quietly walk up the stairs, opening my door, and setting the laptop on my dresser. I go back to the door and close it, locking it for the night.

February 3rd, 2020, 2:00 AM

I unlock my bedroom door and walk out into the hallway for the first time since this afternoon. I had managed to do my research for the day, as well as manage the website, on my not broken laptop. I let out a shaky breath, and walked into the bathroom, not bothering to lock the door, stepping into the shower, and turning it on. I don’t bother with making the water warm, and I sit at the bottom of the tub, letting the cold water seep into my clothes, listening to the sound of the shower tapping against my clothes. The damp cloth clings to my skin, making me exhale harshly as I get colder and colder. I stay in the shower, not paying attention to anything, blocking out all noise but the shower. “Maybe I am a monster? Why can't I feel anything? I should feel something. Why don’t I?” I repeat this internal debate in my head for what feels like hours, until something pulls me out of the shower, and subsequently from my thoughts.

“...hey, hey! Come on, react or something! Dammit, you are freezing.” blinking slowly, my vision comes back in full, my focus turning to the voice speaking so frantically. It looks like Dante, but from his voice, I can tell that it's Vergil carrying me around.   
“Your hairs down.” murmuring, my hand rises up to it, managing to push it away from his face, before feeling my arm fall back down. “There, now I can admire both of the things I enjoy.” The dampness of my clothes makes my skin feel tight, and I struggle with trying to get the article off. 

“Do you have to do this in the hallway?” he mutters, finally managing to open my door, closing it with his foot behind him. Setting me gently on the bed, Vergil helps me peel the soaked clothes, shuddering deeply once everything is removed, feeling a wave of cold wash over me. 

“How come I can feel this, yet I can't bring myself to feel anything towards my parent's demise? Was my mother right when she said I was an abomination lucky to be born?” curling into myself, I can't stop shaking, and frown, trying to stand up to grab something warm. 

His hands feel like an anchor holding me to this plane of existence, as he pulls me back onto the bed, and wraps me tightly in the blankets. “Stay here. I know that none of your clothes will help you stay warm. I'll be right back with something for you. I'm not leaving you alone tonight, I don't feel like it's safe letting you be alone when you're in this shape.” His voice is quiet but firm, as he stands up from the bed and leaves the room. I hear the sound of him walking, into the bathroom and hearing him turn the water off, before hearing his footsteps go past the door, and into his room. 

I close my eyes and wrap my arms around myself, curling into more of a ball than before, trying to mimic what feels like a hug. “Mom… I understand now why you never wanted to touch me, never wanted to treat me like I was yours.” I murmur to myself once again, listening for when Vergil’s footsteps got closer to my door. 

He comes back shortly, just like he said he would, and closes the door behind him. “I brought a sweater, and a pair of shorts since all of your underwear are far too thin. I don't know why or how you've managed to get yourself into this, but it will end. I don't care if you don't want my help, I'll do it anyway.” he walks forward, and in the darkness of my room, all I can see is his outline approaching my bed. He sits down, and I hear the rustle of the blanket around me and I shiver once again as the blanket is unwrapped around me. He hesitates as he looks down at my shivering body, curled in on itself. 

“I’m going to help you put them on, okay?” he murmurs, gently pulling me up from my curled position. He grabs each of my arms, putting each through the sleeve before getting it over my head. Pulling it down over my chest gently, his hand travels to the small of my back, pulling me towards him. Vergil’s other hand grabs one of my legs, slipping the boxers on that leg, then grabbing my other and putting that leg through, before laying me gently back down, and making sure they sit on my hips properly.   
He pulls back for a moment, looking down at me as I lay in front of him, shivering and breathing unevenly. 

“Please don’t go.” I push the words out of my mouth, feeling like I'm choking on them. He sighs deeply and covers both himself and me under the blanket. Pulling me close I feel the warmth of his hands on my hips as he holds me against his chest. I let out another uneven breath, as Vergil shifts so that my head is resting against his shoulder, his arms wrapped around me.   
“I think I forgot what human contact felt like…” I murmur, and feel him tense under me, before relaxing. 

“I suppose this is something we are both unfamiliar with. Well, like this anyway.” He responds quietly, and one of his hands reaches up to start petting my head. “We can talk about this later, but you need to rest now. I promise we can talk in the morning when you aren't as cold as a corpse, and shivering from lack of heat. Now sleep.” his voice soothes me slightly, finding myself already fading from the waking world shortly after. 

February 3rd, 2020, 9:48 AM

I wake up slowly, shifting against the pillow I'm sleeping against, and curling more into it. That is until my pillow started chuckling, and I quickly remembered the events that had occurred earlier this morning.   
“I see that you're awake now, would you like help getting up fully?” he asks slowly, and I look up realizing that my head was against his shoulder and that he was staring down at me, while he closed his book.   
Shaking my head, I sit up fully and face him, fiddling with the end of the sleeves. “You didn't leave. Why?”

“I told you that I wouldn't, and I made sure to keep my promises. Did you still want to continue our discussion from last night?” He asks, and I look down for a moment in consideration, staring at the shirt I'm wearing, now that I can see it. It's a dark green sweater, it feels more like wool than anything cheaply made. 

“I'm not sure yet. I'll answer any questions you have though, as I gather my thoughts if that works for you?” I respond, continuing to feel the edges of the sleeve, loving the texture. 

Vergil hums, setting down his book into his lap. “I suppose the first question I have is why the cold shower at three am?”

“My emotional incompetence was getting to me, so I figured a cold shower might make me feel something towards the situation at hand. Instead, I ended up dissociating and wondering why I exist. That's the third time in the past two months that I've done this, to be honest. It was also the closest thing I could manage to do, that wouldn't be immediately regarded as wrong.” I pause, thinking back to last night again, biting my lip. “I have tendencies to hide any type of physical emotion that I make, things like smiling, or expressing any joy, as often I was told it was too, excessive was the word I believe my mother used.”

I hear the shudder in his breath as he exhales, and I look up at him, tilting my head. Vergil's brows are furrowed, and he looks deep in thought, his hair framing his face, before he sighs once again, and runs his hand through his hair, pushing it back into its usual style.

“That answers a fair bit of the questions I was going to ask. That being said, I still have one left. Were you ever going to tell us you were a half-demon as well?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, y'all! I'm ahead of schedule again, so enjoy chapter four! I think I might be getting the hang of the formatting now, so maybe it will be less blocky than the others! At this point in the book, it hasn't really gotten to the actual plot, but if you guys manage to make some guesses about it, that's cool! I'm trying to be consistent, unlike some unnamed writers, cough supernatural/ cough. Seriously, I'm only writing because I didn't really see any that I liked, so most of this is self-indulgent. I hope you guys enjoy it! Sorry for the long note!!!


	5. Revealing Truths, And Coming To Terms With Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alyx shares some vital information with the crew

February 3rd, 2020, 10:00 AM

I stare up at Vergil, my breath catching in my chest. “Where did you ever get that idea?” I murmur, before looking back down at my hands, trying to stop from panicking. He sighs, and stands up, making his way towards the bookcase by the window, and pulls out the tomb Nevan left with me, and opens the first page, pulling out the note. 

“This fell out when we first started packing your little library around a week ago.” He turns back towards me, and I sigh, before standing up as well, wincing as my feet hit the floor. 

“I have been debating it in my head since January actually. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't necessary yet, as I still hadn’t figured out what I could do.” I walk towards him, and grab the book and the note out of his hands gently, running my fingers over the cover. “I knew that I would tell you eventually, but I still had to come to terms with it myself. I didn't even know that I was half-demon until June of last year, just a little after the incident in Red Grove City. actually, it was just as the Qliphoth fell. After that, I packed everything up, and planned to continue my research.” 

Putting the tomb back onto the shelf, I hold the note in my hands and walk towards the dresser, grabbing the pendant. I motion for Vergil to follow me as I walk out of my room, and he obliges, closing the door as he leaves. 

“Almost everybody should be here today, disregarding Morrison and Kyrie. By now, everyone should be downstairs. I'd prefer not to repeat myself, and to get this over with as soon as possible.”

Staring down the hallway towards the staircase, I start walking, until Vergil grabs my arm, and spins me around. 

“If you aren't ready to tell anybody yet, you don't have to.” he lets go of my arm, and it feels so much colder than when he was holding it. Shaking my head I sigh, and bring my hand up to his face gently, my hand cupping his cheek, and my finger rubs the corner of his mouth.

“I'd rather not lose more trust than I know I will. This was something that I should have been saying the moment I could effectively talk. Instead, I hid it away, as well as some other information.” I pull my hand away from his face, and head down the stairs, despite my heart's aggressive hammering, and my mind screaming at me to run. I take a deep breath before starting to walk down the stairs, and into the chatter of the lobby. I hear Vergil's quiet footsteps following me, and I smile internally. Reaching the bottom of the stairs I look around the lobby at whos here, immediately seeing Nico and Nero on the couch talking about one of her newest creations. Lady and Trish are standing at Dante's desk, arguing about whether or not he should order pizza for breakfast. 

“Come on! It's pizza, it's great for all occasions girls!” Dante tries once again, and I shake my head at the poor argument. I cough lightly into my hand, clearing my throat and getting everyone's attention at the same time. Dante stands up almost immediately, his chair clattering to the floor, Lady and Trish jump slightly and turn to look in my direction. Nico swears from behind me and I roll my eyes, crossing my arms. 

“Everybody done with the dramatics yet? How did you not hear me come down the stairs?” I groan, wiping a hand across my eyes for a moment, blinking slowly as my eyes adjust to the natural light coming in. 

“Well you have no presence for one, and second, where are your pants? Also since when do you own sweaters?” Dante pesters, pointing out that my legs are bare. I look down for a moment and then look back up, shrugging. 

“Probably on the floor in my room soaked. Also, this isn't my shirt, it's Vergils. Same with the boxers.” I pull up the shirt, showing the boxers that reach the middle of my thigh. Dante sputters and looks back and forth between Virgil and I, Vergil sighing from beside me. 

“Pull the shirt back down, don't give my brother a heart attack.”

“But I was showing him that I was technically wearing pants.” I point out, dropping the sweater back down. Nico at least laughs at Dantes face, who looks like he was just forced to eat a lemon by itself. 

“Well damn, that happened fast. When’d y'all get together?” Both Vergil and I turn our heads to stare at her, before looking between each other.

“Technically last night at three am in the bathroom.” We answer in unison, and Nico bursts into laughter again, and I shake my head hearing Dante wheeze from my right.  
“God you two are so blunt it's funny.” He wipes a tear from his eye, and I turn to Vergil for a moment, thinking. 

“I think they came to the conclusion that we are courting one another,” Vergil hums, looking around in disdain. “It's widely inaccurate, but it is true we spent the night together. And before you start laughing, no it wasnt sex. Just talking and him stopping me from getting hyperthermia.” I continue, staring at everyone. 

“However, that is not why I got your attention. I should have told you this the day after I got here, but I still didn't have enough information, and even now I don't know everything about the topic.” Everyone quickly looks at each other, Dante, in particular, raising his eyebrow at me.

“Alright, lay it on us, whatever it is. You probably had a good idea for not sharing it anyway.” he throws both his arms behind his head and stretches, loud pops coming from his spine. 

“I'm a half-demon as well. My mother was Nevan, subclass succubus. You,” I motioned to Dante, “Killed her when you were fifteen.” I wait for a moment wondering if they're going to say anything. Instead, it's pure silence that fills the room, and I look at Vergil in confusion. 

“I have to say I was expecting at least a reaction, but I have to say I think this is worse.” I turn my head towards Dante once again, seeing his features have gone slack.   
“You’re what?” I hear Nero take a step from behind me, and I turn to face him, watching as his face contorts in multiple emotions, confusion, frustration, and then understanding. “So that's why there's hair dye under the bathroom sink! That makes a little more sense now. Why didn't you tell us sooner exactly? We wouldn't have really judged you for it, since we have no right.” 

I sigh, running my fingers through my hair, playing with a strand. “I was still coming to terms with it myself. I explained this to Vergil a little earlier, but I didn't find out until last year. My parents, or rather my stepmother and my father, had found a spell to conceal and lock away any powers I might grow into. They stopped doing it once I had left, so I just re-dyed my hair whenever the roots grew in.” I shrug, and drop my arm, holding the paper up. “This is the note Nevan left when she dropped me off at my parent's doorstep, and from my parent's estimate, I was at least a month old.” Staring down at the note, I sigh before starting to read it aloud. “This child is yours, Elijah. While this information might be a surprise to you, just remember that night we had together, it was one of the few in which I was freed from my duty in guarding an enchanting place for Sparda. Name her what you like. Sincerely Nevan. P.S. be grateful for this gift, she will do many great things if you let her.” 

The pendant sparks for a moment and I yelp as it shocks me. “Mother fucker! You choose now to act up, really?” I snarl at it, watching as it floats up to the note. “Goddamn, even more words now eh? How the fuck did she... it's in Enochian.” I murmur the last bit, and get an idea, shoving both the pendant and the note in Vergil's hands, before running up the stairs. “Don't worry! I'm just getting my notes on the language, don't move!” I shout down the stairs as I sprint up them, barely noticing the fact that I jumped over half of the staircase. I open my bedroom door with a bang, hearing the door crack loudly against the wall, and then fall off the hinges as I run up to my bookshelf, pulling out a smallish black notebook, and run back out to the lobby, just jumping down the stairs instead of walking down the, opening it as I run.

“Alright! I got it, may have broken the door on accident, but I got it!” I rant, talking fast as I grab the note and the pendant, switching it out with the notebook. “Vergil flips to page five, it has the start of the alphabet.” I hear him flip the pages, and start to decipher the new piece of the note, reading it aloud as I go. “‘This language has been forgotten by those beneath us, but I know you will one day read this, for I know that even now, you will do great things. If your oaf of a father ever manages to tell you your heritage anyway. You have questions, so many most likely, that I won't be able to answer. Despite this, I have some answers for you. First, is the records I have managed to bestow to you on our culture, and in it should be a section on how to figure out your gifts. Obviously, you will be able to wield any weapon wisely, but if you are anything like me, magic will be your guide.’ Wow, that is some headache.” I pause for a moment, and flip the note over, checking the other side. “Ah, there's the rest! Damnit, what word is that…” I mumble turning my head to look at the alphabet once again for quick reference before starting to read once again. “‘Secondly, there are your gifts. Should you grow up without a block on your power, you will perfect them with ease, however, I have a gut feeling that wench will block what you are entitled to, to make you human,’ that is some aggressive spelling, okay then. ‘If that's the case, then know this, you will gain your strength, your speed, your healing in due time, along with two abilities. You should be able to shift your appearance to lure or even hideaway. Your last gift is the ability to’”. I stare down at the words for a few moments, looking back at the notebook, wondering if I translated the word right.   
“Is something wrong?” Vergil looks down at me and I look up at him and frown. 

“Just wondering if that's really the word she meant to write or not, and maybe I'm mistranslating it?” I look back down at the note, and translate the word again, having it turn out the same. “Well shit. The words ‘enchant’ or something along those lines.” I groan, about to go back to reading the rest of the note. 

Interrupting me Dante walks forward, standing in front of me and looking down at the note. 

“How can you read Enochian, anyway? It's a dead language, and even for demons, it's barely used. We don't even know how to read it.” He motions between himself and Vergil, and I sigh, looking up at him. 

“I have a doctorate in demonology/ history, focusing on the religious aspects of history. In doing so I learned five different languages while getting my degree, not counting the two I was already fluent in. So far, including Enochian, I have learned how to read and write in eight languages. I had to translate so many things when I was getting my doctorate.” I respond and then go back to the note.

“‘This ability is rather simple in notion, however, it is the one you will need the most practice with, as it will come naturally unless of course, your abilities were blocked. Then, it will be a simple matter of waiting. I am reaching the end of the stupid page, so I have one last thing for you my flower. The pendant, when used properly, can become a dagger, made from my maker's soul. It is called Thaler.’”

I stare at the note again, then look back at the hovering pendant. “The fact that you’re sentient bothers me, but I will deal with that mess of shit, not now.” it glows lightly in response, and I stare back down at the note. “Well guess I can finally burn this now.” I shrug, and go into the kitchen, hearing loud noises of protest from basically everyone. 

“Whoa there, slow your roll! Why would you want to burn the only this your mother has written for you?” Dante’s voice is louder than the others, but I continue on my quest into the kitchen, and turn on the front burner, pushing the note in the fire.  
It catches quickly, curling in on itself as the flames dance across and engulf the note, licking my hand once it reaches the corner I hold. 

“It's not of any value to me, especially now that I've gotten all the information I need off of it. I wasn't keeping it because it was sentimental. I don't have anything sentimental to hold on to, even from the people I was raised with. It also provides me security in that only you and the others here, will know who my mother is.” I watch as the last piece burns away, feeling as though some of my guilt burns away with it.

“I guess that makes sense?” Dante replies hesitantly, and I turn back to walk out of the kitchen after turning off the burner. Watching him scratch the back of his head in confusion as I walk out the kitchen, I tilt my head.

“Is that not a custom you share?” I ponder for a moment, staring at all of their faces, some of them looking worried, others looking troubled, while Vergils and Dante's faces look pained.

“Alex… no, it's not,” Vergil speaks up first, looking over at Dante, who takes over from that sentence alone. 

“Everything is supposed to mean something, you must have had something at some point. Even Virgil has something he's attached to!” he waves his hand towards Vergil, who glares at the accusation. 

“Maybe when I was a child, but since then, nothing has really stayed with me that made me think of my past. I don't have any keepsakes from high school, no photos decorated my house, except pictures that my parents had together. There are no existing pictures of me, not even in yearbooks throughout the years.” I shrug, and grab the notebook from Vergil, closing it, and sighing. “That being said, it's not like I mind. It's better that I'm not remembered.” The last sentence escapes my throat, unprompted and filled with self-loathing, and I almost feel my tongue burn just from speaking. 

Turning away from the silence filling the lobby, I head up the stairs slowly, thinking with each step I take. Getting to the main hallway, I stare at the fallen door and yell down the stairs.   
“Does anyone have spare hinges, screws, and a screwdriver? I forgot that I broke the hinges in my hurry to get the notebook.”

A unanimous sigh fills the lobby, and I hear Nero and Nico climbing the stairs. “We got you a covered doll!” Nico says, her accent echoing across the hall as she gets up first. “Damn alright girly looks like you ripped the entire door out of the doorway.” She whistles slowly, squatting by the doorway of my room. She turns back and looks at me, pointing at a small area on the bottom of the doorway. “You cracked the bottom of the doorway. It's made out of cherry, how much force did you even use?”

I shrug, and stand up fully, walking through the empty doorway and into my room, realizing for a small moment that it looked barren, just like all of the hotel rooms I had stayed in before moving in. My lip curls up in disgust, and I let out a huff of air, setting it all on the dresser for now. Opening the second drawer down I pull out a full torso corset, and put it on over the sweater, tying and tightening it within three minutes. Cracking my knuckles, I go into the third drawer on the top row, and grab a pair of long stockings, pulling them on in seconds for each. 

“Well, you get dressed quickly.” I turn towards the doorway, seeing practically everyone watching. Nodding in response I look around the room for a few moments, letting out a small hum as I see the shoes I'm looking for by the window. Pulling the heels on with ease, I walk back over to the dresser, grabbing my keys, the pendant, and my phone. Slipping the pendant over my head, I pull an elastic off of its packet, and tie my hair up into a bun, grabbing the hairpin to go with it.

“Anyone want to go to the store with me? It's just gonna be a quick run to the hardware store, and the grocery store. Hardware store to get paint, and other things in case I accidentally break the door again, and the grocery store for some odds and ends things that I noticed were missing.” Walking up to the doorway I watch as immediately Trish and Lady shake their heads. 

“Lady and I have to head out, there's a job that Morrison brought to us that needs to be taken care of. It's a normal one, nothing to do with hunting demons so we didn't really need your research.” Trish states, crossing her arms, and looking at me with a guarded expression. 

I tilt my head in response and step over Nico, who has decided to investigate the crack in the door frame even more by lying on her stomach against the floor. 

“That's fine. If you want to be cold to me, I suggest standing in the freezer, it might help you more than staring and expecting me to react more than I am now.” I feral grin graces my lips for a moment, before I drop it, and walk by everybody and go down the stairs. ‘That should be enough of a deterrent for her because, despite our similar tastes, we have nothing in common.’

Nobody follows me as I head down the stairs once again, and grabbing my coat off the wall, I walk out the front door, heading to the alleyway beside the building and unlocking my car. Quickly climbing in and starting it, I pull out of the alleyway with practiced ease headed to my destination.

February 3rd, 2020, 3:00 PM

Backing into the alley I park my car, and quickly hop out. Opening the trunk I stare at the supplies I managed to grab, before deciding to start with the groceries first, rather than the things for my room. Picking them up with ease, the crunching of snow fills my ears as I walk to the front door, and I open it with my foot, as both of my hands are full. The moment I enter once again and encounter an argument between the residents of the building, this time it being Vergil and Nero fighting.

“Dad if you don't tell her, I will!” Roaring in what looks to be frustration, Nero turns into his devil trigger form. Vergil for his efforts only looks mildly annoyed. 

“Tell her what exactly? Both you and Dante are jumping to conclusions rather quickly don't you think? Once again, the most we are is friendly with one another.”

Neither of them noticed me entering the lobby, and I watched them in amusement, and see Dante coming down the stairs towards both of them.   
“You two, knock it off! Nero, does it really matter if Vergil confesses or doesn't confess his most definite feeling for our blunt and emotionally unavailable Alex?” Now, Nero looks even more furious than before. 

“YES! Did either of you even consider that she just hides her emotions better than anyone because it was safer to do in her environment? She could very well feel the same for Dad, but no! You don't even consider it!”

“Son, even if I wanted to foster something more than a light friendship with her, I would at least have to get to know her first.” Vergil pinches the bridge of his nose, and Dante looks past both of them, staring right at me. He looks sheepish now and tries to get both of their attention. 

“Hey uh, maybe you could stop fighting for a moment, and actually, pay attention to your surroundings?”

“Fuck off!” Both father in son reply in unison, and I can’t help but laugh at the look on Dante's face at being told to fuck off. Almost immediately all three of them turn towards me, laughing even more at the look of surprise on their faces.  
“How long have you been standing there?” Nero asks, still in his devil trigger, and I smile slightly at him before replying and heading towards the kitchen. 

“Oh, don't worry about it Kiddo. I mean, if you want me to be your stepmom, all you had to do was ask and I would have started to seduce your father.” Joking lightly, I laugh at the end, kicking open the door with my foot, as gently as I can so I don't manage to break this one too. Hearing the floor creak behind me I see the signature red coat that Dante wears holding the door open. Smiling, I keep walking into the kitchen and set the groceries down onto the counter. 

“Do you think you could help me while they still argue? At least with the groceries anyway.” A pause, and we both hear indistinct yelling and clattering, and then a sharp nod. We quietly get to work, Dante making puns and jokes once he gets tired of the silence, and I reply with teasing remarks that get him to laugh in return. 

We finish rather quickly, and I pout jokingly at Dante. “Our job is finished, now I must vacate the premises immediately!” I dramatically lean back putting a hand to my face. 

“How preposterous! You must stay my lady.” With that, we both burst into laughter, and I jokingly punch his shoulder. 

“I have to grab the paint and other things from my trunk, you're more than welcome to help me bring it upstairs if you want?” I leave the offer open-ended, and despite wanting him to take it, if he doesn't I won't mind too much. Dante thinks it over for a moment, tapping his chin, before shaking his head. 

“Nah, I'm gonna stop those two from destroying the lobby. I know you're strong and don't need the help, but thanks for offering me your time.” he pats my shoulder on the way out, a fuzzy feeling gathering in my chest, one that rushes through my lungs. 

Standing there for a moment to get used to the feeling, I shake my head, my nose crinkling slightly as I do so. I head out of the kitchen after another moment of fair contemplation and step into the now quiet lobby. Both Nero and Vergil sit on the couch glaring at one another, while Dante stands in front of them with his hands on his hips. I walk by them, and back out the door, getting all of the things from the hardware store. I had managed to get three different colors of paint, multiple rollers, screws, extra hinges, and some pieces of cherry wood, just in case I manage to break the door frame more. Staring at the door in annoyance and I feel one of the veins in my neck poke out as I clench my teeth. I kick open the door once again, a little more force than I probably should have used, and walk-in with my stuff piled higher than my head and precariously balanced.

“Oh shit maybe I should have helped her bring that in, she looks pissed.” 

I ignore Dante's words and walk forward with my pile, listening to the sounds of my feet hitting the floor before stopping at a creak, then maneuvering everything into one arm, grabbing the handle of the stairs, and walking up to them. 

“Hey Nico,” I call up the stairs, still barely able to see in front of me. “Can you move out of my doorway if you're still there? I don't want to trip on you and hurt you.” I hear quick movement coming from in front of me and I assume it's Nico, and continue forward, and turn towards the opening of my door. 

“Thanks, Nico!” I grin, and step into my room, gently setting everything down on my bed. Turning to take out the screws and the new hinges, I grab them and turn back to Nico. “So I grabbed longer screws, that way they will be able to hold the door in properly, as well as getting new hinges! I also bought some cherry pieces, like the wood, so if I accidentally break or crack the door frame we can replace it again.”

She nods and looks me up and down for a moment before chuckling and putting her hands on her hips. “Your one of those aren't ya? The type that can do just about anything in stilettos. Damnit, I need to wear wedges to not fall over, but converse is easier for workin’ in.” I nod in agreement, and slip the heels off, throwing them behind me and starting to help Nico fix my door.

February 19th, 2020, 10:24 PM

Stepping away from the wall, I wiped paint on my shorts, trying to get it off my hands. Gazing up at my work, I admire the curling of the flower petals dripping down the woman's face. The entire painting on the wall next to the dresser was of a woman's upper half, her hands perched under her mouth holding a bouquet of lilacs, daisies, and gentians. Her mouth is open, with flower petals falling onto the bouquet, her eyes closed in consideration.   
“Damn… that looks better than I expected it to. I'm so used to drawing horrifying art of demons, I almost forgot what else I could do.”

Loud peels of laughter and chatter fill the air outside my room, and I smile as I listen to the rest of the crew enjoy the night off. It's been about two weeks since I told them, and so far nothing really changed between the crew and I. In Fact, they trust me a little more now, especially since they know I won't break if I'm given a harder job. The change of pace brings that fuzzy feeling back, and I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I'm ignoring it for now. 

“Maybe I should join in the festivities? Though, I'm not entirely sure of what they're doing down there other than talking loudly.” I put a hand to my chin, debating with myself if I would ruin the fun they’re having. “No, they actually enjoy my company. Get that out of your head Alyx…” I murmur, and head towards the door, opening it and walking down the stairs, despite my pants, shirt, and hair being covered in paint.

“Hey, guys.” I wave at everyone once I'm in the lobby, watching a couple of them wave back but continue their conversations. Kyrie walks up to me after finishing her conversation with Nero, holding a cup in her hand.   
“I wanted to apologize for our last conversation. I was overreacting to the situation, and I should have just trusted Nero, but when I saw you for the first time, even then you looked so much prettier than I had thought you looked like.” She apologizes, bowing her head for a moment before continuing. “So once he started staying here more often, I jumped to conclusions rather quickly.”

I laugh and pat her shoulder. “It's no problem Kyrie. In all honesty, this is not the first time that's happened. I was being serious when I told you I wasn't interested in him as well. He's not really my type.” I grin broadly, bearing my teeth in the process.   
“Oh! I didn't realize that you had fangs. That's actually kind of fitting for you though.” She exclaims, leaning in for a moment before backing up. 

“Eh?” I stop grinning, and stare down at Kyrie, before bringing my thumb up to the right canine, and poking it. “Huh. cool. So why's everyone got a drink suddenly? Did all of you decide it was time to get hydrated?” I ask, glancing around the room, noticing that everyone had a cup or a glass in their hand. At this question, most of the crew turns and stares at me for a moment, and I shuffle back a step at the amount of attention I'm getting. 

“Your kidding. She's gotta be kidding.” 

“Uh… I don't know why you think I'm joking around Dante. I was being serious, I promise. Is that not what you're all doing?” 

Almost immediately Dante walks over and hands me his drink. “Drink this, I wanna test something.” Shrugging, I take the drink, look into the cup for a split second, and down the entire thing.

My first mistake was not smelling it, my second was chugging the rest of his drink. My eyes water and I immediately start coughing as my throat burns.   
“What the fuck is that? Vinegar or some shit?” I ask, my voice hoarse, and Dante just starts laughing, while the rest chuckle lightly. 

“No, that was whiskey, my dear friend.” I stare at Dante for a moment, then down at the cup then back up at him. 

“Why are you drinking whiskey? You use that for cooking, not drinking!” At this point, everybody is laughing loudly, and I have no idea why. “Did I say something wrong?” I look towards Kyrie, who shakes her head. 

“No, you didn't. Whiskey is alcohol that people drink to get drunk. Have you not drank before, even during college?” She asks the last part, and I shake my head. 

“I haven't, no. I was always busy with classes, and managing three jobs, so I never even thought about it, as it would take time out of my day. Is… is whiskey the only thing people drink?” I scrunch my nose at the idea of drinking more of that, maybe if it was sweeter, I would enjoy it.

Dante answers my next question rather quickly. “Not at all! There are multiple types of beer, wine, mixed drinks, and more! Hey Vergil, why don't you grab her a wine glass, I think she might prefer that over anything sour.”

Perking up at the idea of something sweet, I rock on the balls of my feet slightly looking around at everyone drinking. “Anything would be better than your drink…” I mumble, punching Dante lightly in the shoulder. He waves it off grinning.   
“That's fine. I prefer cheap beer myself, but the hard stuff is a treat.”

“It hardly tastes like it,” I mutter, watching as Vergil comes out with a massive bottle and an oddly shaped glass. I stare at the glass for a moment, realizing that I have one on my bookshelf. 

“Oh! I have one of those in my room! I got it a couple of years ago from an acquaintance, but I mostly use it for holding rocks.” I bound over to Vergil, who sets the glass and the bottle down, before unscrewing the cap to what I assume is wine. He pours it into the glass and hands it to me, and I stare at the dark liquid for a moment, before downing the whole thing, similarly to how I did Dante's glass. I apparently do NOT learn from my mistakes. Vergil sighs, and I look up at him for a moment, wondering why even he's sighing. 

“You're supposed to sip on it, not chug the entire thing Alex…” my eyes widen for a moment, and I make a small noise in response.

“Oh. Well, this one doesn't taste bad, so I guess I'll stick with it.” I shrug and gently take the entire bottle of wine, in which Lady and Trish both start laughing. 

“Honey no,” Lady sits up for a moment, before falling back. Trish sighs and continues as she takes her drink. “You don't need to drink the entire thing. I mean, I hardly think anyone can handle a full bottle of wine by themselves, let alone someone who hasn't drank before.”

I narrow my eyes at Trish, before an animalistic grin spreads across my face, setting down the wine glass, but holding the bottle by the neck. “Is that a challenge Trish? Cause if it is I’m fucking taking you up on it bitch.”

“Oh shit. Oh no. This is bad.” Morrison states, and sighs, before speaking again. “She's gonna get hammered shortly, she loves competition.” Just as I bring the bottle to my lips and start to drink the entire thing in one go. Trish looks surprised when I manage to finish it in ten seconds. 

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes!” I respond with a grin, licking my lips as I set the bottle onto Dante's desk. I run my tongue against my teeth and scrunch my nose. “Bleh, now my teeth feel weird. Might as well brush them.” I start to head up the stairs, making my way there much faster than I thought I would, and go into the bathroom, brushing my teeth. Afterward, I head back down the stairs, feeling my fingers go numb. Just as I get down there, a slow song starts playing from whoever's phone is connected to the speakers Dante bought. 

“Whose playlist for a party has a slow sad song?” Dante mutters, and I hum, listening to the familiar tune play. He changes the song, and immediately a dancing song plays, Dante grinning as he sips his new drink. I sit down on the couch by the stairs, relaxing as I nod my head to the music. 

Some time passes, and my stomach feels light, my heads full of cotton and I'm humming along to the song playing, barely paying attention to the others in the room, until I see an outstretched hand in front of me.   
“Would you care to dance with me this fine night, darling?” Dante jokes, and I roll my eyes taking his hand, and standing up. 

“Of course my lord, how could I refuse such a polite offer?” speaking in a sultry tone, I joke along with Dante, laughing at my own joke. He grabs my hip and dips me for the first song, and then an actual dancing song comes, and I find myself singing along as we dance. 

“When I saw her, walking down the street, she looked so fine, just had to speak, I asked her name, But she turned away, as she walked, all that I could say was~” I take the lead for the next part of the chorus, dipping Dante down, and pulling him back up, repeating the chorus once again. 

“Didn't realize you could sing Alex!” He laughs and stops dancing for a moment, and I continue to sway to the music provided. 

“I have many talents, boss man!” I joke back, noticing that a slower song starts to play. “I also know many different forms of dance so it's no problem dancing with anybody, but I'm going to seduce your twin now, okay?” I see Dante do a double take from my peripheral, but I saunter my way over to Vergil, who had taken a seat on Dante's desk. 

“I have to say, you look mighty fine Darlin, but I think you'd look finer in my bed,” I purr out once I reach Vergil, as I place my hands on either side of his thighs.

“And I would have to decline, as you are far too drunk for your own good.” I raise my eyebrow at him, and stand up fully, despite the dizziness I feel in my head. 

“If you say so.”


	6. Foggy memory, and Discoveries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Warning this chapter has a couple of gory scenes, or at least that was what I was going for, so I wanted to warn ya!

February 20th, 2020, 11:19 AM

Waking up is a slow process. Face pressing against the sheets, I shift slightly, shivering as cool air nips at my skin. Groaning, I open my eyes slowly and immediately regret the decision as I accidentally blind myself with sunlight. Waking up rather quickly from that factor alone, I bolt up, covering my eyes. 

“Jesus fucking christ! God, why does that hurt so much today?” I pant, breathing heavily as I slowly reopen my eyes. I stare at the open curtains confused, as I usually keep them closed at night so this type of thing doesn't happen. Getting out of bed, I groan as I realize I'll have to wash my sheets, as I slept in my paint covered clothes. “Fuck that… I'll just buy new ones…” I mumble, stretching and heading towards the window. 

After inspecting it for a few moments, I close my curtains and shrug. I turn back, facing my bed, and notice something in the mirror. Fully turning towards the mirror I ran a hand through my now fully white hair.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!” I shout, my mouth opens in shock. I quickly run out of my room and start to run down the hallway, stopping once I see the boys running towards me from the top of the stairs. All of us stop, staring back at one another.  
I take a deep breath, feeling my face twitch as I glare down at them. “What. the. FUCK.” emphasizing the last word loudly, I point at my head aggressively, glaring all of them down. 

All of them look equally shocked as I did, so I drop my hand with a loud sigh, rubbing my face. “Sorry for yelling, but I was expecting, well, not this when I woke up. As well as not being blinded by my open curtains.” I grumble, stepping towards them, before patting Dante’s and Virgil's head, then patting Nero on the back as I walk past them down the stairs. 

“Any idea how that,” Dante pauses, most likely waving at my head. “Could happen overnight?” I shrug, finally getting to the bottom of the stairs, and heading towards the kitchen, before stopping and looking at the jukebox, which was in the corner and was much more dilapidated than last night. 

“Speaking of odd things happening overnight, what exactly happened last night? I don't remember much other than drinking your gross whiskey, and that entire bottle of wine. Which, in all honesty, at this point, I expected to drop in like ten minutes after that, instead there's just, nothing.” I point at the jukebox, turning around to face Dante specifically. “For instance, when I came down last night, that was not the state of the jukebox.”

“You threw it at Trish’s head last night after getting into a scuffle with her. Have to say that was pretty amusing to watch. However, now my Jukebox doesn't work.” He gives me a pointed stare, and I wave my hand, dismissing him. 

“Don't worry, I can easily afford to get you a new one. I have a lot of savings surprisingly.” I turn back around to walk towards the kitchen, finding myself hungry for once. 

“Are you even hungover?”

“That’s a thing? Alright, answer me this boss man, what exactly is a hangover?”

A pause, before the answer comes. “Well. it's usually a pounding headache, combined with light sensitivity, and not being able to eat the next morning because most people puke their guts out.”

I snort loudly, shaking my head. “Then nope. Sensitivity to light was already a thing before last night's activities, and I don't have the other two, so I'd say Nah.” I open the fridge, looking around in it trying to figure out what I want. Shrugging I open the bottom drawer, pulling out a thing of yogurt, then closing everything back up and grabbing a spoon. I walk back out to the lobby, eating it slowly.

I fall onto one of the couches by the windows and look around for a moment, seeing everyone just doing the same thing. Nero sits on the couch beside Vergil, messing with his prosthetic, and Vergil reads one of his many novels. Dantes sitting at his desk, which for once is clean.

Pulling my phone from its pocket I started to scroll through my texts, wondering if I even had any new ones. Once again, there's nothing from anyone. I finish the yogurt rather quickly, scrunching my nose up the moment I realize there's nothing left. ‘God damn it, I'm still hungry.’ A voice breaks the silence, and I look up from my yogurt bowl. 

“Alright, I just realized that we hardly talk. Like, you barely talk to anyone here, and in the two-ish months you've spent here, we barely know anything about you!” Neros the one making this observation, and stands up walking over to me. 

“That's true yes. I make sure to only talk about jobs, and then retreat back into my room to do my research. There's not much that I could, or would tell you. Tell me, what do you already know?” I respond, sinking further into the couch, setting down my empty cup on the small side table. 

Nero frowns in response, pursing his lips before answering. “Well, we know that you're twenty-nine, almost thirty, we know that your half demon likes us. You have a doctorate in demonology and in history, you never drank before yesterday. That's basically all we know about you.” he takes a breath before continuing. “I've been working together for almost three years or so, and in the first month, I joined I knew almost everything about Dante. Once I actually spent time with him,” he motions to Vergil who looks up from his book for a moment. “I learned more about him in the first week than I expected just due to his mannerisms! But you! We hardly know you and you're getting closer to working almost three months with us!” He finishes talking, raising his arms high and flinging them back down.

Resting my hand on my fist, I stare up at him. “Are you done yet?” he huffs, but nods. “Alright then. You already pointed out everything that you need to know about me. That's basically all that my parents ended up knowing as well. Is it really necessary to know other things about me?” I question, leaning forward slightly and tipping my head up at him. 

Nero nods frantically, and I hear Dante set down his usual magazine. “Kids got a point actually. I'm positive most of us, including Vergil, would love to get to know you better.”

I look towards Vergil, who purses his lips before nodding and standing up from that couch across the room, taking a seat next to me. Dante even drags his chair over and sits in it backward. I sigh loudly and start to think for a moment just what they might want to know. For a split second, I notice that they all look like curious dogs, staring at me with the same eyes a dog would make at something new.

“My favorite flower is the lilac. I prefer winter over summer, as the heat of summer reminds me too much of decaying flesh.” I pause for a moment, putting a finger to my bottom lip, and biting it. “Drawing gives me peace of mind, even when I use it for work. I enjoy painting if you couldn't tell by the portrait now on my wall. I love the smell of fresh snow, and the subsequent silence it brings.” I murmur the last one, thinking more about what else they could possibly want to know. “I'm drawing a blank at what else you could possibly wish to know. Why don't you just ask me, and I'll give you the answer?”

Almost immediately Dante starts asking question after question. “What's your favorite book? Where'd you learn to dance? How come you tried flirting with Vergil last night?” 

The last one catches me off guard, and I stare at Dante for a moment, blinking rapidly. “My favorite book is actually a manual on flower language, and I learned to dance in middle school, learning multiple styles for fun. Now, what's this about me flirting with Vergil last night hmm?” I turn to Vergil who now sighs and flips Dante off. 

“Well, for almost two hours you tried many different pick-up lines, some of them fairly… amusing. Despite this, however, I didn't respond to any of your advances and told you no. After a while, you eventually gave up dramatically, which caused Trish to start laughing at you, which in turn started the fight between you two.” 

I sigh, rubbing my temples. “Ah... I see. Well, I suppose it's better than me flirting with your brother, I value our friendship too much to flirt with him. I'm not entirely sure about my stance on our relationship, at the moment. That being said, both of you are my type, generally speaking.” Dante quickly interrupts before I can continue to speak. 

“What am I not attractive enough for you to flirt with?”

“You and Vergil are twins you oaf.”I remind him, sighing deeply once again. “That being said, it's not based on looks. In fact, it's the difference between your personalities. While you are outgoing and boisterous, Vergil is introverted and resolved. You two share a mean streak of stubbornness, however, which at this point I think is an inherent trait as it's obviously in Nero as well.”

I hold up my hand, and Dante closes his mouth immediately, same with Nero. “Don't try to argue about it, you'll just prove my point more so. Now, moving on, any more things you want to know about, other than my lack of a love life.”  
They all sit quietly for a few moments, thinking about what to ask, and getting the obvious hint that anything about my love life was off-limits. Vergil manages to come to a question before the others but hesitates before speaking. 

“What is a memory from your childhood that even you think is wrong, or rather that something was wrong?”

I start slowly, instantly recalling the memory like it was yesterday. “I was seven years old, and it was the middle of summer break. I had packed all of my things up, deciding that it was best I leave my family, after hearing my father and mother fight for the third time that week about me again. They never fought over anything else. I remember hearing my mother screaming at my father, hearing it ring throughout the house, about how ‘she's an abomination, we should just give her away! We could finally be free from that dead-eyed stare, and that monotone voice.’” I put up air quotes around my mother's wording, and sigh before continuing. “Father always managed to convince her otherwise, but I had enough of listening to her cries, and grabbed the one thing I knew I would take with me.” I close my eyes for a moment and smile, remembering the soft feeling of fur against my hands.

“It had been my cat, Mira. I had gotten her for my birthday two years prior, and it was my job to take care of her. I knew I couldn't take the stairs down, so I came to the conclusion that I would have to jump out of my window.” I pause for a moment. “That being said, my room was on the fourth floor, or subsequently the attic. I had one window that led to the back yard. Being seven, I had not come to the conclusion that I could be hurt, or killed from doing this. I wanted to make sure that Mira got down safely before me, so I opened my window, and dropped her out of it.” I go quiet for a moment, hearing a low whistle coming from Dante. 

“I heard the crunching of bones and the splatter of blood, and I heard my mother scream loudly, and the back door opening with a bang. I wondered what I had done wrong, why it hadn't worked. As my father ran up the stairs to come to see how she could have fallen, he saw me at the window, staring down.”

“So you just dropped your cat down, without a second thought?” Nero asks, and I nod, continuing on.

“Father, immediately upon seeing the bags gathered around me, realized I had been hearing every argument, and knew that I had been planning on running away if it would make her happy. He didn't get mad or raised his voice at me when I turned to him, from staring out the window, tears running down my cheeks. Instead, he gathered me up in his arms and apologized. I never tried leaving again, and after that, there was always a silent understanding from my mother that she would never go up to the attic, as she feared a similar fate to my cat.”

At the final word, everything feels like it's stopped, none of the boys saying a word as they stare at me in silence. Nero's face is pained, Dante's resigned, while Vergils is contemplative. I sigh, stretching my arms up, and stand, grabbing my cup from the side table and heading towards the kitchen. I shout behind me as I walk away.

“Why don't you come up with less depressing questions, and maybe you'll find yourself happier.” I go into the kitchen and close the door behind me, and I grab my chest with my free hand, clutching my chest tightly in vain, knowing the feeling won't leave. It started slowly while I was talking, curling around my heart, and squeezing it tighter until it felt hard to breathe. A shaky exhale, and I get up off the door, throwing the plastic cup into the trash and the spoon in the sink. I open the fridge again, grabbing two beers, from the second drawer up, one for Nero and one for Dante. I grab a small can of what looks to be lemonade, and a can of grape juice, before heading back out with them.  
Upon reentering the lobby, I am greeted by the wonderful sight of a calm discussion. 

“You know, we could have asked first what she was willing to actually talk about... That might have helped with the current issue of all of us feeling pity for the latest question.”

“Yes, Nero, but she also probably doesn't care. Her face was blank for most of that story, except for when she started talking bout the cat. She probably never had an animal after that, worried she might make another error.”

“You would be right about that Verg,” I reply, walking back to my spot, and handing both Dante and Nero their drinks. “I figured if we were going to discuss things like this or even happier memories, it might as well be in the slightly buzzed setting.” I sit on the couch, holding out both of the cans to Vergil, letting him pick which one he wants. He takes the lemonade, and I open the can of grape and take a small sip from it. I wince from the slightly metallic taste but shrug it off. Grabbing my phone, and turning on one of my playlists I set it back down, letting the music play outright. “Now! What questions have you got for me?” I grin, and Dante matches it, opening his drink.

April 3rd, 2020, 4:09 PM

Landing on the floor once again, I groan, getting up slowly. “Can I just say that this is bullshit?” I wave Thalear around, feeling him hum in my hand. Vergil sighs, and I fully stand up, popping my back. 

“You can, but you were the one to ask for training with your blade.” Shooting forward, feint a left strike, and duck down, sweeping my leg under his. He falls backward, and I grab his shirt, pulling him down faster, pressing the blade against his jugular. 

“Yield.”

“Never. You left your stomach wide open.”

I don't fall for the bluff, knowing that I have his arms pinned under my legs. I smirk and stay in the position still until he tells me to move. After a minute of him staring up at me, I smirk wider, and lean down to his ear, whispering into it softly.  
“You know, I could have killed you three times over by now, or did you forget that I know the one thing that will kill half-demons permanently?” I lean back up, and I look down at him, his pupils blown wide, and I watch his tongue dance against his lip, his adam's apple bobbing as he swallows a breath. 

“...Fine. I yield.” He murmurs, and I get off of him, and extend a hand out to him, helping him get up.

We started training in March after I had asked him in private if he could teach me how to fight. I had wanted to be more useful to the crew, other than supplying information, spells, and just general things around the house. While I understood I was a vital part of the crew, I still felt like something was wrong. I ended up finally looking through the tomb Nevan left me, and found out very quickly how the ability to enchant others was a nuisance. I can hardly go to the grocery store without at least ten people asking for my number now. At one point I just ended up going in a sweater, jeans, gloves, and a hat, and I managed to get only four people asking for my number. Eventually, I stopped leaving Devil May Cry, for any reason, and I think the others might drag me out soon...

I also managed the other ability that she had mentioned, the ability to shapeshift. Unlike enchant, it does not come easily. So far I can change my facial structure, and skin tone, but I haven't managed to completely mimic another person yet.  
I feel a hand touch my shoulder lightly, and I jump for a moment, turning with Thalear almost immediately, before stopping, realizing that it's just Vergil. For his credit though, he doesn't look as horrified as I currently feel.  
“Are you alright? You didn't have a reaction for a while.”

“Yea,” Exhaling slowly, I turn the blade back into a pendant and pull it over my head. I turn away, and shrug Vergil's hand off my shoulder, once again feeling cold the moment his hand stops touching my body. “We should head back downstairs. We've been up here since ten.” I manage out, heading to the door leading back into the building without another word. 

Despite learning so many new things, I can't shake the feeling that I'm doing something wrong, that something is wrong with me. I wake up screaming most nights now, with a fleeting memory of the dream leaving the moment I try to remember. It started after my talk with Dante, Nero, and Vergil, and after the first time, I put up sigils around the room, blocking all sound from escaping. There's one above the door, the window, my bed, and the dresser, each on a different wall so that there's more coverage. I've learned to lock my door as well, as the first time someone checked on me and noticed I was screaming in my sleep, yet they couldn't hear it. I tackled them and started to strangle them when they went to wake me up. It had been Dante and once I realized it was him I let go, staring at my hands for a good hour.

Shaking my head, I walk down the set of stairs, and head into my room, closing and locking the door behind me. Walking towards my dresser, I open the bottom drawer, pulling out a black turtleneck, and then a pair of black leggings. I frown at the articles of clothing and look towards the clothing I had stopped wearing longingly. I shake my head once again, grabbing a bra and some underwear as well before unlocking my door and stealing the bathroom. I jump into the shower, rinsing off the grime sweat and blood I had gathered from training, staring down at my healed skin. Turns out Nevan had been right about me healing like other demons. I get out of the shower quickly, drying off my hair, and pulling on my clothes, avoiding looking into the mirror. Sighing, I grab my dirty clothes and step into the hallway, and cross the distance between my room and the bathroom, opening my door and throwing the clothes on my bed. I grab a hair tie and pull it up into a bun. I look across the room, and towards my bookshelf, I think for a moment, and grab the pens from the dresser and grab my sketchbook. 

Leaving my room for what feels like the fifth time today, I close the door behind me, and head down the stairs, watching as the rest of the crew gets ready for a mission. I already gave them the information they needed, so my part to play has ended.  
Dante whistles as I walk down the stairs and I roll my eyes. “Damn all dressed up and nowhere to go eh? Just know I’m joking Alex.”

I nod in response and steal his desk, sitting in his chair. “Don't worry, I'll hold the fort till you get back, most people think this place is haunted so they don't really look towards it. Should be easy.” I mumble, rubbing my arms against one another. “Have fun, and don't die,” I shout as they all start to leave. Once the door closes, I sigh and get to work on sketching, working on a drawing of Nero’s devil trigger the only one I've actually seen. The brothers don't shift at home, or they try not to at least. And since I'm always here, it's not like I've gotten the chance to see them.

April 4th, 2020, 1:48 AM

I wipe the blood off of Thalear by wiping it against my leg, staring down at the bodies in front of me. I finished them off rather quickly, and for blatant thieves, they tried their best at raiding this place. The heavy scent of iron fills the air, and I have to stop myself from gagging, and I look down at my hands, they drip with the blood of the men before my feet, and I can feel the blood dripping down my face, none of it mine. My hair falls in my eyes, and I remember when one of them had tried to grab my hair as a way to hold me down, and I slit his throat, his body lying by the stairs. Before I can do anything about the bodies before me, I hear the familiar engine of Nico’s van, and my blood goes cold. Before I even turn to face the door, it opens and multiple footsteps halt suddenly.

“Alex?” It's Nico's voice and I turn facing them all, schooling my features and making myself look as dead-eyed as possible. Looking to Dante, I tilt my head and open my mouth, a half-joke coming out.

“I did as you asked Dante, they didn't steal anything. Not that I let them have the chance.” I turn back towards the bodies in front of me, kicking one lightly, the gun slipping from his fingers as he jerks, it clattering to the floor. 

“Hey what's the hold up… oh god.” Nero's voice pierces the silence, and I fully turn towards the doorway, holding Thalear loosely in my hand. I twist the blade's end twice, and it turns into a pendant, and I stare down at it for a moment too long, barely focusing on the heavy footsteps approaching me, feeling my vision sway as I stare at my reflection in the pool of blood I stand in. Seeing the hand reach for me in my peripheral, I jerk backward, away from the hand, snarling up, feeling my teeth grow sharper. 

“It's just me. look. Look up at me.” My vision goes in and out, the smell of copper flooding my senses and I keep snarling, even as the voice continues to talk in hushed tones. “Hey, it's okay. Alex, it's just us, it's going to be fine. You don't have to protect anything, we got home safe, you're not dead, we aren't dead. You did a good job.”

“Verg, uh, I wouldn't keep reaching your hand towards her, she looks like she's going to bite it off.”

“We have Nico,” he responds, and I can finally see him, not just the hand, my vision focusing back in, feeling my snarling die in my throat as I stare up at him. His face is turned towards Dante, and as I gaze up at him, knees collapse beneath me into the pool of blood. I reach my hand up, grabbing the edge of his coat, my finger shaking against the fabric as I grasp onto it like a lifeline. Tears cascade down my face, mixing with the blood covering my face as I sob. 

“I... I hadn't wanted to-- I didn't want to kill them--” I shudder, as my chest heaves and I look down for a moment, before his hand is under my chin, forcing me to look up. “Once they knew I wasn't going to -- going to let them steal, they-- they decided it would be better, if --if I was taught a less--lesson.” The words spill out more, and tears blur my vision as I sob harder. “It was too easy- the first one grabbed me from behind-- I turned and used too much force-- he dropped so quickly. The others aimed and shot-- one didn't miss. It burned like a fire in my ribs, but when I didn't go down-- the other-- threw his knife at me. I threw it back, it lodged in his skull. The last one,” my vision blurs more, and I let out a shaky breath wiping it away. “His heads barely attached.”

“Did you just say you were shot? You handled a bullet but not what they were planning on doing? Which uh, what is it exactly?” Dantes is the one speaking now, and I look over, watching him walk towards Vergil and I. Mimicking the voice of the man dead behind me, I stare at Dante. “Since we can't have anything of value boys, why don't we take something that should be easier, her body? After all, look at how small she is, shouldn't be too hard sweetheart, just a quick fuck and well leave.” My features don't mimic my tone, but the shock on Dante's face tells me he got what they wanted very clearly.

“Then you did great darlin’!” Nico pipes up, and starts walking over as well, Nero still barely in the lobby frozen at the damage I caused. “Don't worry ‘bout this, mess, sugar, we’ll clean it up. Vergil, can we borrow the sword to get rid of them? Also, take care of her while we clean up.” She motions for him to take me away from the mess of blood, and he immediately picks me up, despite me being covered in blood. I rest my head against his shoulder, closing my eyes, letting everything fade away as I enjoy the warmth of being held, and possibly if I can ever have a small hope, of being loved.


	7. Unwelcome Thoughts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for any roughness in the plot, I made this last month. I'm way ahead on chapters, I'm currently working on chapter nineteen actually, so I apologize if any of its wonky, I've been busy editing everything.

April 4th, 2020, 2:07 AM

Vergil helped me peel off my blood-soaked clothes in silence leaving me in my bra and underwear. He winces slightly looking at my ribs, and I look down, staring at the hole in my side.   
“It's not healing, so I'd assume it didn't go through completely meaning..”

“We’ll have to start digging around my insides. Yay…” I mumble, letting him set me onto the counter, and opening the drawer next to my hip, rummaging through it.

“Tweezers are next to the scissors.”

“Thanks.” He pulls the tweezers out of the drawer, as well as a face cloth. He closes the drawer and starts running the water from the sink, and then gets up, going to the tub and starting the water in there too. 

“Why are you running the bath?” I ask, and Vergil turns and raises an eyebrow at me.

“You're covered in blood, and you collapsed in front of me, you think you're going to shower by yourself?” He shakes his head, and then walks back over, putting the face cloth in the water from the sink, and turning off the tap.   
“Now time to clean the blood off.” He mutters, wiping the washcloth against my torso, wiping away most of the blood, then moves down to my legs, wiping them off as well. He rinses the face cloth off in the water, standing, and does my upper chest, and my arms, before moving back down to the bullet wound, holding the tweezers. 

“Ready?” he asks it quietly, and I can barely hear it over the running water. I swallow, breathing deeply before nodding, and then once the tweezers are in I exhale harshly, feeling the pain shoot through my nerves, and I throw my head back and clench my teeth as the tweezers go in deeper.

“Would you prefer that I stick my hand in instead?” Vergil jokes, moving the tweezers once again, and I let out a whimper, biting into my lip hard enough that it opens, and blood pools in my mouth.  
I gag for a moment and stop moving completely as I feel him grab onto the bullet. He holds my hip down and pulls, leaving me screaming out in pain blood dripping down from my bleeding lips. Showing me the bullet, he drops it into the sink, and we both wait for a few moments, watching as the wound heals. 

“I hate being able to feel every bit of this, but it reminds me that I am still part human, despite not looking like it much anymore,” I murmured, gazing up at Vergil, who locks eyes with me almost immediately. He looks down at my lips frowning. 

“You could have screamed instead of holding it in.”

“I didn't want you seeing me as weak.”

“I don't. If I saw you as weak, I wouldn't bother spending time with you, I wouldn't bother with lending my clothes to you, and I most certainly wouldn't be doing this.” He motions around the entire bathroom, and I make a small face of surprise. “If I thought you were weak we wouldn't train. But while your body may be unused to the pain of being a half-demon, your mind was already prepared for it. You have so much motivation to do everything you want, and you don't take no for an answer. I value that above all else.” He sighs, and takes off his bloodsoaked jacket, and starts to undress, starting with his shirt, then moving downwards before looking up at me. “What? Did you think that I was letting you do this by yourself? You are still covered in blood, and you look exhausted. When was the last time you had a restful sleep?”

“Mid to late February,” I answer slowly, looking down. “I sleep very little now, despite wanting to. Too many things running around my head, unwanted thoughts, and memories.” Vergil makes a small hum in response, and I look up for a moment, noticing that he has shed all of his clothes, so I make an effort to look at his facial features, admiring them in the back of my mind. Taking a step forward, he reaches his hands behind my back and unclasps my bra, and I manage to pull it down, putting it in the pile of clothes. Grabbing my hips, he pulls down my underwear, and puts them in the pile, then fully picking me up, and setting me gently into the tub. 

“Thank you…” I murmur, watching as he turns and grabs the washcloth from the sink, then climbs into the tub behind me.   
Leaning back, I look up at him, raising my hand to hold his face. I sigh, at the lack of response, and lower my hand back into the water, even further drained.

“That's the second time where you've been affectionate towards me, outside of being drunk.” He murmurs quietly, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and making it so I'm pressed up against him fully. My breath hitches slightly, feeling one of his hands stroke my collarbone gently. “If you want me to stop, I can.” He states it as a fact, rather than a question, and I shake my head slowly. 

“This is.. Fine. I'm just not used to physical affection in this way. Or at all. You've had time to get used to it, since last year.” Replying softly, I wrap my arms around his, and smile, closing my eyes and enjoying the moment.  
“Alright, as nice as this is, we need to get you cleaned off and in bed.” He murmurs, unwrapping his arms from around me, turning me to face him. “Don't fall backward's alright?” Nodding, I stare at Vergil's features once again, my breath hitching and I lean forward, gently holding his face as I look into his eyes. “Your eyes… They have the most lovely shades of lilac just around your iris. It's absolutely breathtaking.”

“Are you two almost don-” We both turn our heads towards the voice, and see Dante, Nero, and Nico standing in the doorway. Dante holds a hand in front of Nero's eyes, who was the one who had opened the door. 

“Well. I guess that answers some questions. Alright, we’re not staying in here to watch you two do this.” Dante closes the door with a loud thud, and I look back at Vergil, who continues to stare at the doorway with a clenched jaw, and his grip on my hip tightens exponentially, till I wince at the pressure. 

“Vergil, it's alright. We both know that nothing is happening, so it doesn't matter what they think. We don't have to base what's going on between us on their perception.” I murmur, feeling a pang of disappointment run through me at the ruined moment.   
“That's not…” He sighs and shakes his head, turning back to face me. “Let's finish this up. We can discuss this,” Motioning between us for a moment while holding the washcloth, “later.”

Nodding slowly, my face scrunches up for a moment, and I turn my head sneezing. Making a sour face, I turned back to Vergil. He has a small smile on his lips, and it leaves the instant I look towards him.   
After that, the bath ends fairly quickly, the water a dark red by the time we both get out. He ends up getting out first, putting his clothes back on after drying, and grabbing a towel, he lifts me from the bath, and simply wraps me up in the towel. I lean my head against his shoulder, letting drowsiness take over as I feel the gait of his step. 

From that point on, I don't remember exactly when I had fallen asleep, only knowing that I was warm, and I wasn't alone anymore.

April 4th, 2020, 1:48 PM

My vision sways in and out, heat pounding within my chest as I listen to a cacophony of voices around me, the walls of the cage getting smaller. Blood covers my hands and I try to wipe it off in a hurry as the voices grow louder and louder, taunting me as they surround me.

“An abomination like you doesn't deserve to exist!”

“You are nothing but a nuisance, the only thing you're good for is your research.”

“Nobody wants you around, after all, you are a monster.”

“Blood coats your hands, do you even remember their names? Their faces? Their screams?” The last voice is louder than the others, and the back of my neck feels harsh breath hit it.

“Nothing you do is ever enough.”

“You aren't enough.” The last one repeats over and over, filling my head. As I close my eyes, placing my hands tightly over my ears I hear the distinct sounds of the cracking of skulls, and gurgling of blood. 

“Come on Alyx… Did you think anybody actually loved you?” I recognize the voice instantly, and shake my head more, refusing to open my eyes, knowing that it will only hurt me more if I do.

The grip on my chin tenses and I can feel his breath against my ear as he whispers in. 

“You are worthless. Nothing you ever do will be worth anything. You should have stayed away from this world, and died with your parents.” Having enough of this, I slap the hand away, and open my eyes, instantly regretting it.   
Vergil stands above me, a cold and calculating look in his eyes, the Yamato drawn slightly. 

“You wouldn't ever say that, not to me, nor to anyone that we live with!” My voice shakes as I glare up at him, doing my best to convince myself that it's not him. He laughs, and it sends chills down my spine, and the last thing I see is him grinning as he brings the Yamato down. 

Waking up screaming, I have Thalear out immediately, my vision uneven and everything swirling around me. Hearing voices come closer, I throw my dagger at the general vicinity of the voices, hearing another voice swearing loudly.   
“Jesus fucking christ, where’d she learn to throw that thing?! She's literally just waking up and that was almost a perfect hit!”

“I thought she had stopped having these back in February!”

“Obviously not, Dante.”

Vision still swimming, I can vaguely make out who's there, but it still feels like there's blood on my hands. I can feel the warmth of it, and the molasses-like texture running through my fingers.   
“Oh... it's just you.” I murmur, once I recognize the boys, blinking to make sure it's actually them. Dante stands in the doorway, while Nero and Vergil are further in the room, Nero having Thalear right by his head, lodged into the wall. Vergil walks forward, while Dante and Nero watch in faint amusement. 

“Good technique. Nightmare again?” His voice is soft for once, and Nero and Dante keep looking amused, Dante, making vague motions with his hands.

“Usually. How did you all hear it? I have sigils around my room to block sound from leaving the room.” I ask, tilting my head as I look Vergil up and down, before looking down at myself. “Also, did you dress me again?”

At this Nero starts coughing, and a heavy blush appears on his face, while Dante just grins, giving me a thumbs up from behind Vergil's back. Sighing Vergil turns to them, glaring at them both, before turning back to face me.

“Yes, I did change you, you had fallen asleep fairly quickly after the bath. As for your other question, I left the door open a bit in case you woke up and needed help.” I hum for a moment, and stand up, walking towards Nero, pulling Thalear out of the wall by his head. 

“Sorry for almost killing you Nero,” I murmur, changing thalear back into a pendant. I walk over to the dresser and pulled out an identical outfit to yesterday. 

“Why have you stopped wearing your old clothes, did they stop fitting or something?” Dante asks this and walks over looking at my old clothes, and I sigh, shaking my head.

“No, that's not it. I finally figured out what the enchant ability is, and well… it's safer for everyone if I wear layers of clothes to cover all of my skin. I'm still getting the hang of shift however, the most I can do is change my facial structure and a fair portion of my skin color. It's nothing compared to what a normal succubus can achieve, so the progress is slow.” I reply, shedding my shirt and grab one of the binders I own, pulling it on. I exhale sharply from the pressure, hearing my ribs give a loud crack as they adjust to it. Looking back at the guys, Dante looks concerned, and Nero looks just as concerned, yet also confused by the sudden lack of breasts. Vergil however only sighs slowly but says nothing.

“That didn't sound very good…” Dante mutters, making a face at me, as I ignore the creaking coming from my ribs as I move around. “You probably shouldn't be wearing that today, maybe another day?”   
I shrug, and reply slowly, rummaging around my dresser for something. “Well, it's either this, nothing, or…” I mumble and finally grab it making a small noise of happiness, showing it to them. “These!” The bandages are slightly worn down, as I've accidentally washed them with bleach once or twice. 

Immediately Dante is shaking his head, as well as the others, and he makes a grab for it. I jolt away immediately, almost flying across the room. “Kiddo--” 

I cut him off quickly, raising my hand. “Dante, I've been doing this for literal years. I know how much my body can take, and while yes, it sounds terrifying at first, it doesn't do any lasting damage.” well, that's not entirely true, especially if you go over the recommended time of use, or do it while injured. Dante still doesn't look assured, so I sigh, starting to take it off. I pull the turtle neck on over my head once I manage to get the binder off, not bothering with a bra at all. Considering the fact that I was in a room full of men, I made a small face as I stared at Nero and Dante, finally realizing that I just took off my shirt in front of them. Nero's face is even redder now, and Dante just gives me a small grin, and a thumbs up once again. Vergil sighs at their antics, putting a hand to his face.

“I would refrain from undressing in their company, neither has the brain cells to not stare.”

“I completely forgot that you guys were actually here, to be honest, and anyway, it's just lumps of fat on a chest. The only reason anyone finds them attractive is that we've made them that way as a society.” I respond in turn, completely pulling down the shorts that Vergil had put on me last night. Dante and Nero freak out immediately while Vergil just nods in response, barely reacting to the sight of my underwear. 

“That is very true. Will you two stop overreacting, obviously, if she's doing this in front of us it's not a big deal to her.” I nod along to his words, pulling on my leggings, which unlike yesterday, are a light blue color.   
“Are you two sure you're not dating?” It's Nero asking a question this time and I sigh, staring at him. 

“We've been over this before Nero if you want me to be your stepmother just ask. I don't have to be dating your father to fit that role.” I walk towards him, ruffling his head. “Let's go bake some cookies, okay? I’m starving and I don’t want fucking pizza for the fifth time in two days.” 

Grabbing Nero's hand, I pull him out of my room, leaving Dante and Vergil by themselves. His grip on my hand is tight, but I don't mind.   
“Vergil, come on. It's obvious that you feel something for her, and that she obviously has feelings for you. Why don't you just ask her?” I hear Dante’s voice as Nero and I walk down the stairs, stopping for a moment. 

“What’s there to say? She's made her stance on love abundantly clear. She finds it useless and that there is no point to it. While I may or may not have feelings for her, as I am going through everything as well, that doesn't mean that we will magically get together. That isn't how a relationship works in the slightest.” I can hear him sigh, and I smile, starting to walk back down the stairs with Nero. I don't need to hear the rest just yet, it will come out in due time.

April 17th, 2020, 3:07 PM

It's been over a week since I’ve slept, and I'm surprised that no one has noticed yet. I mean other than tripping down the stairs yesterday, but that was literally because I was holding a pile of books the size of my torso, and I accidentally missed the first stair going down. Despite the lack of sleep I've been surprisingly well, I've managed to get the ability to shift down, it just took me getting angry at Dante for almost destroying my work, however, it was because he himself tripped while holding coffee, so I can't fully blame him either. The work is fine, and so are Dante's eyebrows. Everybody decided that once it hits five that they would be drinking tonight, which Dante supplied them with the lovely idea of going out.

“Come on! It'll be fun Alex, we promise we won't let you go blackout like the first time!” Both Nero and Dante are begging me to go with them, Nero even using his sad puppy eyes. 

“Come on Mom! You haven't gone out to celebrate with us in ages!” I roll my eyes at both of their antics, shaking my head.

“Dante, you already know my answer. Nero, honey. The answer is no. You both know that it's dangerous for me to leave Devil May Cry with enchant, it will be worse around drunk people. And anyway, I have plans for tonight.”   
Both of them look shocked for a moment, before immediately starting to ask questions.

“Are you going on a date?”

“Staying in with Dad?”

“She's going to the bookstore with me, so a point to you Nero.” Vergil pipes up, coming down the stairs, adjusting his sleeves. “She hasn't left Devil May Cry in over a month, so I thought it would be a good idea to take her out for a little bit, as company and as a deterrent to others. Either way, it's something we both will enjoy doing together, and we should only be gone a few hours.” He nods to me, and I stand, setting the blanket I was wearing to the side. Underneath the blanket, I had been wearing leather pants and a skin-tight crop top. Both were black, and I grabbed my jacket from the door, looking back at Vergil.

“Wait, you got new clothes?! How do you keep buying these things, and how much money do you have?” Dante practically shouts, looking me up and down. I respond with a small smile, staring him down.

“Well Dante, I have no debt left, and I've started paying you off, using my massive fortune. You see, since my parents' untimely demise, I was the sole beneficiary of their will, leaving me with their retirement funds, and everything else they had, as well as their life insurance money. And that was just adding to my already growing bank account from the jobs I took before working here permanently.” I pause for a moment, pulling out my phone and checking my bank account. “So in savings alone, there is 509 million, and in my actual account, I have a good five hundred thousand in it. So I am essentially rich. I don't really spend any of the savings though, just working on what's in my checking account.” Everybody is quiet at this, and I look up from my phone confused. Dante looks surprisingly angry, Nero is overall shocked and Vergil is just standing at the bottom of the stairs. Dante storms right in my face, and I step back for a moment, even more confused.

“Why didn't you tell any of us?!”

“You didn't ask? I hadn't really thought it was a big deal… money doesn't really have any value to me. It's why I've always told you that I can handle getting less on my paycheck, and I'm the one usually getting groceries.” I respond slowly, backing up once again as he takes another step forward. 

“No value to you? None at all?! How? That could easily make it so you start your own business, or even buy a mansion!” He throws his hands up in the air and stalks back towards the couch I had been sitting on. “Were you ever going to say anything?”  
Frowning, I walk towards Dante, and pull him up from the couch, dragging him to his desk. Making him wait while I opened the drawers, I pulled out three things that I had stored in there. One is a laptop, still in its packaging, the second being a deed, and the third being a stack of magazines.

“I placed those in your desk almost a month ago. I didn’t realize that you were stupid and don’t open your drawers.” I set each down onto the desk, before picking up the deed. “This goes to your childhood home. I noticed that it had basically been for sale for years, yet no one bothered going into it. Because of how dilapidated it was, they only wanted eight hundred thousand dollars instead of what it's now valued at.” I sigh, rubbing my face. “You fully own the house and the surrounding land. I bought it as a gift to everyone here, but I wasn't sure how to bring it up, so I hid it in your drawers, hoping you would find it.” I had Dante the deed, and sit on the edge of the desk, motioning for Nero and Vergil to come over.

“How did you manage to do this? No, better question, why did you do this?” He asks, his voice hard, and I sigh once again.

“Because I… Is it not an obvious thing?! How could you ask me something like that?” This time I started walking away. Breathing in deeply, I wring my hands together before turning back to the men. “I adore you. You've become my new family, the one I wanted to have since I was a child. A family that isn't worried about whether or not I'll kill them in the middle of the night! A family that won't hate me, for just giving in to what I want to do! Is that so hard to see?!” Feeling a wetness start to appear and I quickly wipe the growing tears away, looking at their faces. Dante is hard to read right now, but Nero is like an open book, his face filled with happiness, and Vergil has a small smile on his features. 

“You love us, don’t you Alyx?” Dante finally looks up from the deed, walking over to me, and I get the implicit feeling of how small I actually am. Despite my father's tall stature, I never grew past 5’4”. Dante wraps his arms around me, picking me up and twirling me. “Come on just admit it! You love us! Even Vergil!” He sets me down, and my stomach turns over itself, and my vision is dizzy.

“Please don't spin me around again. And of course, I love you all, I just explained why, hadn't I? Now, since you actually read the deed, you know that it's in your name as well as Vergils.” Another smile from them both, and my heart races, it's probably from all that spinning, it's got my head all wrong.

“The house isn't ready to live in yet. Considering its disrepair from the Qliphoth incident, they were surprised to find it still had a good foundation. That being said, they've managed to get the house repaired to the point where they're starting to recreate the insides. I made sure that any paintings went to a restorative worker.” I murmur, motioning for Vergil to follow me. I start to head to the door, holding my jacket and phone. “That being said, we should get going, so that way we'll be back before you guys leave.” 

April 17th, 2020, 6:00 PM

Vergil walks into Devil May Cry before I do, holding what could be described as a mini library in his hands. Walking in after him, I held his things, which consisted of three new books of poetry, one of which is a bigger version of William Blake's poetry. Looking around I see most of the crew here, other than Nico, that is, she usually is the ride for things like this. Looking over at us, Dante whistles, and walks forward to inspect the amount of books Vergil holds for me. 

“Holy shit Verg! Didn't realize you needed that many books.”

“These aren't mine. Alyx is holding the books I bought, these are all hers.” 

I nod, and switch with Vergil, grabbing my stack of books and smile, bringing them up to my room. Once I finish setting them all down, I look at everything I bought. A fair amount of it ends up being about the occult, which completely fills my bookcase. I stare down at the rest of the pile, sighing and rubbing my temples. 

“I suppose I have to get at least two more…” I murmur, staring at my overflowing bookshelf, and the pile of books stacked on either side of it and in front of it. “I think I went overboard with everything…” Sighing again, I started to sort everything I had bought, finding that thirty of them were occult, ten were about different types of plants and how to cook/use them, six were about history, and four were sketchbooks. 

“Do you need any help Mom?” I hear a voice from the doorway, and I turn around to face them. Seeing that it's Nero, I nod, and he walks over, looking at the pile I've managed to get. 

“I know, it's a lot of books… I probably should've had your dad stop me at twenty, but I couldn't help it! All of them are so useful!” I frown, my features tense as I start to rant. “I mean, think of all the things I could make or even do with this much knowledge… I could probably end up poisoning everybody if I wanted to… wait no, that's just a bad idea in general.” I murmur the last part, thinking to myself now, and Nero laughs, interrupting me from my thoughts.

“Mom, chill! You just need like two more bookcases to hold your books, and anyway, this shows your character. Don't be nervous about enjoying something.” 

Nodding once again, I get up from my spot on the floor, and pat Nero's head. “Go have fun tonight okay? Don't worry about Vergil and I. We have something planned for tonight that's best for just us to do.” I grab one of the new books on plants, along with my sketchbook filled with translated spells, and the tomb Nevan gave me. Leaving my room with Nero, we head down the stairs to see both Vergil and Trish arguing. 

“How can we actually trust her?! Look at everything she has access to Vergil! It looks very similar to the path you once went down all those years ago!”

“It’s not even remotely the same thing Trish! That being said, this is literally what she does for a living! She tells us the info she gathers on demons, we kill the demons easily because of it! Now, what is your actual issue with her since it's so blatantly obvious that you can't stand her.” Vergil verbally puts his foot down on the situation, and I wince staring at them both from the last step. Trish looks more aggressive now, and I motion for Nero to head back upstairs. 

“Well, it's probably because of how easily she kills firstly, secondly, there's the whole thing of her still hiding information from us!” Trish pulls out one of my notebooks from her hip, holding it up, and I feel my blood run cold.  
Vergil scoffs, crossing his arms. “And? So what if she's hiding things from us. At this point, it's likely that she has a good reason to do so, and even then, why do you bother snooping around her things? That's a severe invasion of her privacy, something that Alyx holds very close to herself.”

“You don't understand! In just this journal alone, she's already analyzed every single one of our weaknesses, and then picks apart our entire personalities!” Trish opens it and starts to read off one of the pages, and I can't help the rage that comes over me, feeling a cold wave of anger and resentment. “From Dante’s section; ‘Dante: the legendary demon hunter. Weaknesses are easy to identify, consists of family, as well as mentioning childhood. Suspect it has to do with his mother's death, find fix as quickly as possible’/” 

I cut her off from speaking, walking towards her. “Let me continue for you, hmm? ‘Suggested edits would consist of therapy, unlikely idea, must review.’ Having fun Trish? Playing with something you shouldn't be.” She stares at me, a hand going to her weapon almost immediately. 

“I wouldn't bother doing that… It won't help you anyway, after all you barely have powers.” I murmur, walking towards her still. “Malak.” I wave my hand at her weapon, watching in amusement as it flies away from her. She stares at me for a moment, before going to grab another, and I wave my hand upwards watching as she shoots towards the ceiling, before stopping the hand motion.   
She hangs in the air for a moment and all I can hear is my blood pumping in my ears as I stare up at her, so badly wanting to twist my hand and watch her go limp. Instead however, I sigh, making a circular motion with my wrist, bringing her back to the ground. 

“If you ever go through my things again, I won't stop next time. I will gladly watch that stupid little face of yours splatter across the ceiling. The only reason you aren't a pile of guts is that I have self control, and because you are Dante’s friend. Remember this.” I grab her chin, gripping it tightly as I lean forward to whisper in her ear. “I suggest you weigh your options heavily and rethink how you approach people. It does you no good.” Letting go of her jaw harshly, I pat her cheek and head towards the kitchen. Finally being able to hear over my own heartbeat, I can hear the argument starting up again, but this time it's far quieter. Repeating the word I spoke earlier, I wave my hand, and my notebook flies towards me from Trish’s hand, and I hear her gasp as her hand slices open from the pages. 

“I’m telling you, she's going to become a liability. Whether you choose to acknowledge this is up to you all, not me. I've stated everything that's wrong, and if everything goes wrong, you know what I'll say to you.”

May 6th, 2020, 11:05 PM

Over the past month Trish and I have fought constantly, the only thing holding me back from killing her would be that it would make everyone despise me, as she is considered to be a part of this ‘family’, that we have. I haven't started any of our fights, but I always finish them the same way, her pinned underneath me with thalear at her throat. If she left everything alone I would be more tolerant to her, but since she is not tolerant of me, I refuse to do the same.  
The nightmares haven't ended, and I've made a system of sleeping every other week for twelve hours. So far it's worked, but I'm not entirely sure if it's the best system as I've found myself doing things I normally wouldn't, and I'm almost positive I tried jumping off the roof at one point. 

That being said, I had to leave tonight, I could barely stand the way Trish was glaring at me, so I decided to head out, specifically to the docs. It's one of my favorite things to do when I'm up in the middle of the night, as it's always unoccupied, so I can easily swim and not have to worry about enchanting anyone.

The coolness of the water wraps around me as I dive off the pier, and I sigh the moment I reach the surface again. “This is one of the best decisions I've made this month…'' I murmur to myself, staring up at the new moon, enjoying the darkness and the serenity it brings.

Nothing seems to make sense, especially now. That being said, enjoying the small things is nice, even if they remind me of times I wish I hadn't had, despite how good they were. I wrap my arms around myself as the thoughts come forward, remembering the smell of wood and the feel of calloused hands gripping my hips. I shake my head breathing deeply as I swim back to the shore. My clothes cling to my skin as I step out of the waters, and I slick my hair back, looking up and wondering what would have happened if I had stayed if I hadn't left him. I shake myself from my thoughts, starting to walk back to Devil May Cry, despite not wanting to return quite yet. 

The streets are quiet, and I remain vigilant throughout the long walk, just to make sure I don't bump into anyone. My current appearance is after all of a woman wearing all black completely drenched in saltwater with pure white hair, so it's likely I’m to scare everyone off if they even thought of approaching me. 

Finally seeing the neon sign of home, I walk through the doors and come across yet another fight between two of the parties that are usually here. I'm starting to wonder if I'm cursed in this aspect, as it happens every time I walk into the lobby.   
“Verg, she's probably fine! Alex can handle herself, especially at this time of night, she's proved that to us plenty of times!” Dante’s words are the ones I catch first, and I close the door quietly behind me as I watch the brothers fight.

“She's been gone for almost three hours Dante! Something must have happened. She didn't even take her car, which she knows we prefer she take if she decided to go out on her little strolls!” Vergil sounds far more concerned than I thought he would, and I watch as he throws his hands into the air, before placing one on his face and another on his hip. “While I do trust her, I don't trust others, Dante. And anyway, almost everybody here is drunk once again, so it's not like you'll be of actual help.”

I can't help but snort at that, wringing out my hair as I walk forward, revealing that I had been watching. Almost everyone startles and reaches for a weapon that's near them, before seeing that it's me, except for Trish and her judging stare.   
“You're covered in water.”

“That is correct Dante, you’re now the winner of the ‘its fucking obvious’ prize!” I snark at him, sighing. “I go out almost every night, is there really a need to fight over where I fucking go boys? Last I knew your names weren't tattooed onto me, so you have no right to anything I do.” My mood is plummeting rather quickly, from the lack of sleep, to fighting constantly with Trish, and now the recent thoughts of my ex husband. I sigh, rubbing my temples at the incoming headache.   
“I apologize for that, I shouldn't have snapped. Haven't slept in like a week.” I mumble, heading up the stairs without another word, making a beeline for my room once I'm up the stairs. I hear footsteps following me, only one set, so I assume it's Vergil checking up on me. 

The hands that wrap around my neck however say otherwise, and I struggle as I'm brought down to the floor with a loud thud. Seeing Trish on top of me isn't a surprise, but the absolute look of rage, and resentment in it is. Others run up the stairs, but at that point I've stopped struggling, and let Trish try to kill me, feeling so tired of these little spats, and the emotional and physical toll it's taken on me. 

Black spots start to go across my vision, and I feel my lungs screaming for air and everything burns, and I wish I could scream, but I don't bother as I look up at her, and wonder if this will make her see exactly how one sided this is. I see others just barely coming up the stairs and see them yell, hearing nothing come out of their lips, but seeing the frantic look on their face before it blurs, and I feel tears tracking down my cheeks, as my vision becomes more spotty, and my ears ring loudly. I can see Trish’s lips moving, and I know she's talking but I can't hear her, I see the pain in her face, the resentment, and the overwhelming fear she feels. I reach up slowly, my vision quickly fading, and I grab her cheek lightly, and choke out words, knowing exactly what she needs to hear.

“It's okay, let it out.”

My vision fully goes out for what feels like a moment, and before I know it I'm jerking forwards sitting up, and coughing up half my lungs as they finally get the oxygen they so desire. My vision is blurry but I can see the floor and a set of feet in front of me as I continue to cough, and I can start to hear the one-sided screaming match.

“Trish what the hell were you doing?! Killing her will do nothing for you, in fact it will make it so that no one here works with you again if you pull this shit again! We all know you hate her and think that she's going to take over the world, but get your head out of your ass!”

“She didn't even put up a fight. She just laid there staring up at me as I choked her out, until the end, and she told me it was okay, that I could let it all out.” 

“What?” The screaming match ends abruptly, and heavy footsteps come towards me, and I can hardly tell who it is at this point, still coughing from the abrupt air coming into my lungs.   
“Why didn't you fight back? You could have ended it so quickly, but instead, you let her have the upper hand.” I look up towards where the voice comes from, the lights of the hallway feeling like their splitting my skull wide open, and I squint up at the figure, trying to figure out who it is. Making out the blue color of the shirt, I come to the conclusion that it's Vergil, hoping I'm right this time. 

“It's not like she could have actually killed me. Might as well let her get out all of her inner resentment, anger, and fear on someone who won't die from that.” My voice is hoarse, and I remember briefly what it felt like to be choked this hard before, shaking my head to stop the memories. 

“That makes absolutely no sense, on any spectrum of belief.” This time it's Dante's voice, and I manage to recognize it surprisingly. I start to stand up, the floor swaying under my feet as I stand, and I shake my head again, and I feel hands keeping me steady.

“Easy there. Don't try to be like my idiotic brother and keep fighting after losing your stamina.” I hear Vergil speak, and it sounds almost pained for a moment, before becoming annoyed. I wave off his hands and walk towards Trish, grabbing her hand and dragging her from Dante, who still expects an answer from me. I look towards Vergil, and motion towards the Yamato.

“Farnor Pier,” I murmur it out, and he doesn't move for a moment, before sighing and opening the portal. I drag Trish through, hearing Vergil and the others following behind.   
Hearing the creaking of the wood underneath our feet, I sigh, and listen to the waves washing along the shore. 

“Why did you bring us here?”

“To show you why holding onto emotions for too long will be your end. No matter what you hold against me, I could care less about that. However I can’t watch you just destroy yourself with this.” I murmur, walking to the end of the pier still grabbing her wrist. I turn to her, waving a hand at the water, watching it glow for a moment, before turning a darker color. She stares back at me, and I can still see the same emotions lingering.

“Trust me this one time. But don't worry, I won't let go.” And with that I pull us both off of the pier, falling backward into the darker point of water. With that final push, the spell activates with ease, and I feel it thrum in my veins, wrapping around me like a cool breeze. I stare at Trish, still holding onto her wrist, as she panics and tries to swim her way up. I pull her down, shaking my head. 

The spell itself is a rather simple one, and all it does is bring two people to understand one another. That being said, I modified it a little more, so that it would explain everything along the way. I learned how Trish resents her past, and how she came to be, and how she piles that onto me when she sees me so accepting of who I am. She gets to see all of my past and comes to understand my love for knowledge. We breach the waves together, pulling each other out of the surf as we walk out of the waves. 

“Do you understand now?” I murmur, rubbing my throat as I look towards her, and I watch her nod. I stare at the rest of the crew, all of them standing on the pier, and feeling confident for once, as well as wanting to put everything behind me, I walk towards Vergil. 

Meeting me halfway he looks me up and down as I stare up at him, seeing all of the stars behind him. “You’re alright, right?”

I hum in response, reaching up towards his face, placing a hand on either side. “I am now.” I pull him down slightly, going on my toes to reach his face, our lips almost touching. “I want this, please tell me I'm not the only one.”  
He doesn't give me a verbal answer, instead of pushing our lips together, kissing me underneath the stars, and for once, I feel as though I'm not drowning in my past, instead resurfacing from the waves and looking towards the future.


	8. With Loving Mind and Body

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! So this is the first chapter to have a sex scene, and if you don't want to read it, I put a bunch of +++ in front of the start of it, so that way you can just stop reading if you don't want to. Hope y'all enjoy the chapter!

May 7th, 2020, 11:45 AM

Opening my eyes slowly, I shift underneath the sheets shivering. For once I'm surprised by the lack of screaming when I wake up, wondering what the cause is as I stare up at the ceiling tiredly, almost wishing I could go back to sleep just to get more rest. I sit up slowly, rubbing my eyes and yawning. I take a quick look around, realizing that I am not in my own room. While I haven't been in his room as often as he'd been in mine, I can tell that this is Vergil's room, just from the number of books in it.   
Smiling softly, I get up from his bed and make it once that I'm fully out of it, remembering that he likes keeping it neat. I run my hand through my hair and pull my hand away when I feel the rough texture. “Shit forgot to take a shower when I got back I guess. Fuckin saltwater…” I murmur to myself, and walk out of the room, heading to mine to grab new clothes. 

Letting my eyes adjust to the brightness of the hallway, I walk to my door, opening it and stepping in, grabbing a set of my clothes without a second thought, and heading towards the bathroom. After taking a quick shower and getting dressed, I head downstairs as I tie my hair up. For once when I enter the lobby there isn't any yelling between people, instead, it's just quiet conversations. As I make my way down the stairs, I look for Dante, having a few questions for him. I see him talking with Vergil, both of them nodding occasionally, with Trish chiming in from the floor. 

“Hey Dante, any idea what time it is? It's really bright outside…” I mumble, rubbing my eyes once again trying to fully adjust to the amount of light coming in from the windows. 

“Oh hey, you're up! It's almost twelve actually, we were planning on letting you sleep in since you said you weren't sleeping this past week.”

“I sleep once a week, usually for a total of twelve hours. This was nothing compared to that, but thank you. I had a couple of questions for you and then I was actually going to check my phone.”  
He nods in response, giving me his full attention. 

“So, am I still living here when you leave to move to Red Grave City, or are you having me come with you to the mansion? We haven't discussed it and with the building almost finished I figured I would ask so that way I wouldn't be stepping over any boundaries.” Staring up at him, I shiver once again wondering why I could be cold but trying to focus on the answer. Instead of actually answering my question, Dante laughs, and Vergil lets out a small chuckle from the couch. After they're done laughing at me, Vergil speaks up and grabs my wrist gently. 

“That was a rather pointless question Alyx. I apologize for laughing, but it was a bit outrageous for you to have to ask. It's fairly obvious that you're coming with us.'' His thumb runs along my inner wrist, and my gut does somersaults as I turn to him and laugh slightly. 

“Well, I never thought it was obvious but, I suppose if you do that's fine.” 

“Hey, I actually have something I need to show you/” A loud ringing cuts Dante off, and I curse, pulling my phone out of my pocket and answering it on speakerphone. 

“Hello, this is Alyx speaking, may I ask who's calling?”

“I see you haven't changed your number. Long time and no calls huh, doll? Sorry to burst whatever bubble you're in currently, but I haven't been able to find you in over two years.” My entire body tenses and the voice I hear over the speaker is unmistakable. I can feel the blood rush out of my face as I stare down at the phone. 

“That's for a good reason, Malcolm.”

“Oh come on love, don't be that way. Just come back and everything can go back the way it was.”

“I did not spend the last fucking two years of my life running from you to fucking go back now asshole.”

“Little late for that Darlin.” His voice is husky sounding through the phone, and I see the worried look on Vergil's face, as I restrain myself from crushing the phone. “After all, I've found where you work, and I'm outside. Devil May Cry? Really, again with this occult shit, I told you that shit was useless.” The front door to the lobby opens, and one of my worst nightmares walks in. Malcolm, is six foot four, with brown hair, and is ultimately terrifying when he gets a grin on his face. He holds his phone up, grinning at me as he closes it. 

“Malcolm.”

“Alyx! So nice to see you again my lovely angel.” He walks forward each step sounding thunderous as it rings out in the lobby. Feeling sick to my stomach as I look at him, I frown, trying hard not to show anything at all other than annoyance.

“It's really not. Look, let's get to the point. You still love me, and you want me back in your life, and you're here to apologize for everything you've ever done.” I stare up at him, pushing down the panic that's quickly rising in me. 

Grinning he nods, pulling out a set of papers almost immediately. “Exactly! Just sign these and our divorce will be nullified completely and you'll be mine again.” I stare at the papers he offers in disgust, before staring back at him.

“Are you daft? Or mentally deficient? Actually, I assume both of the choices. You agreed to the divorce, and I would never nullify it, and in fact, you're breaking at least three different laws per my restraining order on you.” Barely managing to keep a straight face as I look up at him, I watch as the smile slides off his face immediately. 

“Playing hard to get eh?” In almost a flash he has my wrist and is holding me up by it. Everyone immediately is standing up and drawing their weapons at him, and I stare at Malcolm, as he grips my arm tightly in his grasp. “You shoot and I break her arms.”  
He says it so calmly, almost like he's talking about the weather, and I'm reminded once again as to why I left him in the first place.

“Malcolm, please just leave. We are done. I made sure of it when I ran from you for the last time, making sure I took everything of mine with me.” I try to reason with him for a moment, before sighing and shaking my head. “You know what, you're never going to leave me alone. And since I know that you'll somehow manage to kill me the next time I'm even remotely alone with you, I'll deal with you now.” Using my empty hand I unlock thalear, and swing it towards Malcolm's arm.

Blood splatters the floor, and I can feel it run down my face, and I look at the arm still clutching onto mine, and look back to him, putting thalear away, and back on. I wave my hand at him, feeling the magic come to life in my veins, and he flies across the room, hitting the wall. 

“Just like your good old dad, huh? Always wondered when you would take after him.” he manages out, a grin breaking across his features. Barely focusing on anything else around me, I stare at him and twist my wrist with a violent jerk, watching in satisfaction as his neck snaps.

I wipe the blood off of my face, walking towards the body of my ex-husband, and make a repeated circular motion with my hand, watching as a portal opens up underneath the body, and he falls into it, I look around for a moment after keeping the portal open, before pointing at the arm from across the room. 

“Can someone toss that in here, I'd prefer not to touch him even if he's dead.” Almost immediately Trish is picking up the arm, as no one else had done anything else but lower their weapons.

“Here.” She throws the arm in the portal, and I drop the hand motion letting out a shuddering breath, shivering once again.

“Thank you.”

“After seeing your memories I have no qualms about you not touching him. He's done enough damage.”

“You have an ex-husband?” I turn towards Dante, staring at him for a moment before nodding. “When did you two get married? Don't you not believe in love anyway? Wait how does that work if you love him?” He points at Vergil at the end of his rambling, and I sigh, staring at the blood on my hands a bit too long for my liking.

“I married Malcolm when I was seventeen, almost eighteen, straight out of high school, so we were married for around ten years before I managed to get out. I had tried before but had never managed to go through with it. And yes, I do love your brother, just as much as I love you, but that's for a later conversation, even though I don't fully like the idea of falling for another entirely. Last night I decided I would try to overcome my own issues so that maybe I could have a better eternity.” I speak slowly, feeling extremely lightheaded and dizzy, knowing that it's just the backlash of using spells while I'm already deprived of what I need. Before I know it, Vergil is already next to me, practically holding me up. 

“Oh, thanks.”

“You need to rest more. It's obvious that you aren't healing as fast, and are ignoring your needs to achieve everything faster.” Vergil sighs, and simply picks me up. “You're going back to sleep, no arguments.”

“Only if you stay,” I murmur, and he carries me out of the lobby and I hear Dante and Trish sigh, Dante mumbling something to Trish, but I don't manage to catch it as Trish starts to laugh at him.

Vergil brings me back to his room and sets me down on the bed before leaving. He comes back with a washcloth, and he wipes all of the blood off my face, and I sigh, rubbing it once it's clean. I quickly shed the bloody shirt, and shorts, passing them to Vergil before climbing under the covers of his bed. He sets the clothes in his hamper by the door, before lying down next to me on the bed, despite staying on top of the covers.

“I have a feeling you won't sleep for a little while longer, is there anything else keeping you from sleeping other than yourself?”

“Yes and no. It's mostly memories and things that will never happen that end up replaying themselves in my head while I sleep. Since I never want to see it, I just stay awake...”I murmur, scooching myself closer to him, keeping all of myself under the blanket, except for my head. “I understand that you're curious and worried about me, especially after the last hour. If you have questions, please don't wait to ask.” I look up at him, noticing that he is sitting in a rather awkward position, with his legs swung over the side of the bed, while his torso rests against the wall and facing me. “Stand up for a moment.” He does and gives me an odd look as I open the blanket, scooching myself into the bed more so that he has room.

“Is there a reason you're opening the covers, and not trying to sleep?”

“Yes, so you can get in. I thought it was fairly obvious.” 

Motioning for him to lie down once again, he sighs but still gets in the bed. I throw the blankets over him and I, and I lie my head on his shoulder letting out a small sigh. “You just wanted me as a pillow didn't you?”

“That and the way you were sitting looked incredibly painful. Now, know you have questions, so please just ask them now instead of later.” I mumble into his shoulder, and he chuckles slightly, rubbing the back of my head. 

“Waiting would be rather pointless wouldn't it.” He hums, thinking about it for a bit longer. “I’ll ask you a few, but then you have to rest, alright?”

Instead of actually answering, I just nod my head up and down against his shoulder. He sighs for a moment, still playing with my hair as he rubs my head. It takes him a few moments to come up with the first question, and it almost surprises me when I hear him speak.

“It's obvious to me and Trish that you never wanted to marry him, so why did you? I’m not even going to bother asking you why you said nothing about him yet, it's blatantly obvious looking back why you moved around so much before joining us.”  
I sigh for a moment, thinking back to why I had to marry him in the first place. “Well, it honestly wasn't up to me at all. We had dated at the end of my junior year, and into the summer, but broke up before school started again.” I start slowly, thinking about how much would be too much to say or how little. “We ended up getting married due to his parents' beliefs, and my mother steadily agreed to it, once she found out. We had ended up sleeping together once or twice during the summer, and as a teenager, I didn't think much of it, until halfway through the year, when I collapsed during gym.” I stop for a moment, lying on my back and staring up at the ceiling, hearing Vergil breathing calmly beside me as he listens, still feeling him play with my hair.  
“I woke up in the hospital, with my doctor telling me I was five months pregnant. Immediately, I laughed in his face, telling him that was impossible, as we had used protection, and that I had been on birth control. Despite my own wants and my vehement protests, we got married during spring break.”

“I’m sorry. What happened to the child? It doesn't seem like you were going to keep it, especially with Malcolm.”

“Well, surprisingly, Malcolm made it very easy. He didn't even bother coming back when I told him I was in labor. I had the child in my own home, entirely by myself. I managed to drive myself to the hospital, even though I knew I was slowly bleeding out. I convinced the nurses to take my child and put her under a different name entirely or to not tell anyone that it was mine. They listened to me, and while I was getting stitches, they came back in and asked me what I was going to do.” I take a deep breath, exhaling sharply at the shot of pain that goes through my heart. “I told them that I was going to tell my husband that she was stillborn and that it's not like he would care. They nodded, and I told them to put her up for adoption, and that it didn't matter which kind. I have no idea where she is, but I do know that she was safer away from Malcolm.” 

The quietness starts to bug me, especially after letting out one of my biggest secrets. I start to think that maybe it wasn't a good idea to be honest, that it would have been better to tell him the same thing I told Malcolm, but I shake the thoughts away, especially as he starts to talk again.

“So we really are similar, it's almost funny. While you ended up being able to make the choice, I never managed to. If I had known about Nero's existence, I would have stopped everything and made him have the childhood he deserved.” He kisses my forehead, pulling me close, and he sighs once again. “Let’s rest. We can talk more later, I promise.”

I nod in agreement, wrapping one of my arms around his torso, and rubbing his back absent-mindedly as I slowly drift back to sleep. 

May 13th, 2020, 3:44 PM

Setting down one of the last moving boxes, I look around at the renovated mansion, taking in all of the design features. A fair portion of the wallpaper was replaced, but it still has the same red hue that was there before, but I think the most important thing would have to be the portrait hanging above the fireplace. I walk towards it, admiring the features of the family, and smiling when I stare up at the family before me. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I turn my head and find Dante staring up at the portrait.   
“You did a good job. Thank you for all of this, I know you didn't have to.” He lets go of my shoulder, and opens one of the moving boxes labeled weapons, and pulls out what looks to be a purple guitar/ sickle-like creation. “I've been meaning to talk to you about this for a while. Every time I was going to show you it, we ended up getting interrupted by something, so I'm doing it now. This is Nevan.”

I stare at the weapon for a few moments, before nodding. “That makes sense, I mean your dad is also a sword, and you keep getting weapons whenever you kill high up demons, so it makes perfect sense. I have one question though, why is she almost a guitar but not?” I point at the weird design and he laughs for a good few minutes.

“You know when I first got her, I thought the same damn thing!” He makes a move to hand her to me, and I shake my head. 

“It's okay for you to keep her. I prefer Thalear, it suits my style much better than a massive guitar.” I chuckle and start looking through our mound of boxes, grabbing all of the ones that say kitchen, and heading into that room.   
When I'm finally done moving all the boxes to the desired room and putting them away, the only things left to put away are our personal belongings as they don't have a designated room, which I stare at for a while before the boys bring me out of my thoughts. 

“You good Alex? You did most of the work once again, we can do the rest.” Dante offers, and Vergil looks at him for a moment, shaking his head.

“That's not what she's worried about. These are the only boxes left, and they don't have an exact place to go otherwise she would have done them too.” He explains my inner conundrum excellently, and I sigh, nodding. Vergil turns to face me and explains more about the house. “We have at least eight different rooms to choose from between the three of us, so why don't we do that first, before worrying about our stuff? We can also just explore the house since I know you've only seen the floorplan.”  
I bite my lip for a moment and weigh the options given to me. “On one hand, deciding the rooms right now would give more time later to walk around the mansion without having to worry about packing, yet if we leave the things here we could end up forgetting about them for a good month due to how big this house is…” I continue to rant about the pros and cons, barely noticing the brothers giving one another a look.

“I think you broke her Vergil.”

“Her own mind did that all on its own Dante, no need for me to break it. She might be here for a while, would you like to put some stuff away while she thinks?”

“Absolutely.”

I continue my slight rant, as it's mostly to myself anyway, weighing the pros and cons of the situation heavily before quickly coming to the conclusion that I have been left by myself. “Well shit.” I stare down at the boxes, specifically the ones that are mine labeled books. Since last I checked on the floor plan there was a library on the first floor, so I should be able to add more to the collection. Grabbing the multitudes of boxes, I stumble my way through the hallway to the west side of the mansion, trying to remember which door was the library door.

Eventually finding it, I pulled on the handle, and pushed the massive door in, looking around in awe at the library. There were multiple sets of bookcases along the walls, and two standing bookcases in the middle, both of them shaped like a U and facing the other. Along the back wall of the room are large windows almost reaching the ceiling, with small seats embedded under each window. I walk in a little more, looking up at the balcony seeing more bookshelves lodged in the walls up there.   
“Holy shit I am in heaven. Did I die, and just not fuckin notice?” I gape at the full library and look around for at least a couple of empty bookcases. Managing to see a few on the balcony, I stare at the small spiral staircase leading up to it and sigh.   
“Two boxes at a time I suppose…” I pick up the first two boxes, making my way carefully up the stairs, before setting the boxes down in front of the designated bookshelf. I end up having to do this trip at least five times, and by the time I get the boxes up there completely I'm tired, and just wanting to sleep. Before I even get the chance to contemplate which thing to do, I hear Dante and Vergil running down the hallway, and into the room. 

“She has to be here! All of the books are missing, so she must have decided to find them a home here. I'm not entirely sure how she managed to get them all in one trip, but maybe..” Vergils the one talking, and I slide down the staircase, looking at them both.

“Hi. Sorry, I got distracted, and I didn't know where you went, so I just went back to work on something I could do. I managed to get all of my boxes up there though!” I smile and point up the staircase as I sit on the edge of the railing. Dante for some reason looks at me sitting on the railing and starts to laugh, and he doesn't stop for a few moments, and when he looks back up he starts laughing again.

“Vergil, I'm sorry that I worried you again. That wasn't my intention.” I hop off the edge of the railing, walking towards him, and wrap my arms around him. He hugs me back, pulling me close. 

“It's alright, it's just that wherever you go missing for longer than ten minutes usually something happens when you get back, or something happened while you were gone,” he murmurs the words slowly, and I sigh for a moment, pulling away. 

“Would you two like to help me put away my books? I'm already tired from getting lost the first time, then making multiple trips up and down the stairs. I hate stairs…” Grumbling the last part, I slowly walk up the staircase. Opening one of the many boxes.  
“We can definitely help,” Dante assures, following me up the stairs, and Vergil just hums in response, following his brother. “Oh damn. That's a lot of books.” 

Nodding in response, I get right to work, putting everything in order using the alphabetical system to categorize my books rather than by subject. Vergil notices the pattern and copies it rather quickly, while Dante mainly passes us the books from the boxes. With that system, we quickly fill the three bookcases, with some specific books left out.

“Why aren't we putting those books in exactly?” Dante asks, motioning towards the two boxes left over. The first box holds my spellbooks, which won’t be leaving my room, while the second box contains the recipes for potions and spells that require tangible things, not just energy.

“Well, one of the boxes holds my spellbooks, the other is stuff for making potions for us to sell. The first one will be going to my room, while the second will be headed to the kitchen with the other cookbooks.” I respond casually, picking up both of the boxes, hearing a slight crack coming from my wrist from the weight. I wince at the slight pain but start walking down the stairs anyway. “Speaking of bedrooms, did you two find yours?” Both of them turn to stare at me for a moment, and I can practically hear crickets from how silent they are. “Did I say something wrong?” 

Replying almost immediately Dante rushes down the stairs after me, waving his hands while Vergil simply walks down them. “No, no, no! It's just we were kind of thinking you would share one with Verg since you're dating him now.”

“Huh? Well, yes, but that's not why I would need my own room. The whole point of a room to yourself is that a person will know that it will be either space away from others if they need the break from human contact. With this mansion, it's unlikely that I'll need it, so I understand the confusion and assumption.” Responding slowly, I bring us back to the main entrance, where the major staircase is. I walk into the east side of the mansion, looking for the kitchen, finding it rather quickly, and setting the books with the rest of the cookbooks, a divider placed between the two separate kinds.

“If you don't mind, I would prefer if you shared a room with me,” Vergil speaks up after I turn from the cookbooks, and I nod in response, putting the empty box by the door. “Not even considering it for a single moment, you're just jumping right in.”

“I suppose you could call it that. I already know I'll be spending a fair portion of my time in the library and the kitchen, so I know that here,” I motion around us, gesturing to the entire mansion. “I won't have to worry about privacy or space. Even when the others come to visit, I still would be able to get my own space. It's not really an issue for me. And anyway, I trust you both to respect any boundaries I set.” 

Both of the brothers look towards one another, Dante grinning widely as usual when he's happy, and Vergil is smiling gently, and they turn to face me once again. “Then it's settled! Come on let's get your stuff all unpacked with his!”

May 13th, 2020, 7:34 PM

After a couple more hours we've managed to unpack everything that we brought and put them where we wanted them. That being said, most of the stuff was Dantes, as both Vergil and I had fewer things than he did, Vergil due to his lack of life on the earthly plane, and mine being because I hated having too many objects besides books. We all end up lying on the floor of the library at the end, with me holding a normal guitar after Dante had asked if I could play an instrument. I had managed to get out that I could play most string instruments, and that was all he ended up hearing.

“Pleaseeeee!” Dante drags the words out begging me to play a song for both him and Vergil. “I promise we won't share with the others, but please!”

I rub my temple, annoyed. “Dante, you didn't even let me finish talking before thrusting a guitar into my hands!”

“Sorry, I got excited.” He rubs the back of his head sheepishly, sitting up from the floor while Vergil keeps lying down. “So what can you play, that's a string instrument?”

“Well, I can play the violin, any version of the cello, however, I am much better at the piano and organ. I don't know much about playing the guitar, I'm sorry.” I hand the guitar back to him, and he pouts heavily, taking it back gently. 

“It's alright, I did spring it on ya.” He sets it down beside him and thinks for a moment. “So that's another thing we know about you now! Anything else you think you can share with us now?” He says it jokingly, but I think about it for a moment, wondering what I haven't told them. Instantly I think back to what I had been doing since I had talked with Vergil on the seventh. 

“Oh! I got in contact with my daughters' adoptive parents. The couple that adopted her is absolutely lovely, and the nurses decided to make it an open adoption, under the condition I was nowhere near Malcolm. That meant that I was allowed to contact them, and they were thrilled to hear that I wanted to be in her life, especially after twelve years.” I smile gently thinking about the letter I had gotten just before we moved. 

“Whoa, you have a kid!?” Dante exclaims loudly, staring at me, and I nod, furrowing my brows for a moment.

“No, you didn't tell him, and neither did I.” Vergil knows the answer to my inner dilemma almost immediately, and I sigh for a moment. 

“That's on me, I meant to discuss it with you as well.” Yawning slightly, I stretch my arm up and crack my back. “That being said, I had her a few weeks after I turned eighteen. So, she should be almost twelve soon, which is why the parents even bothered contacting me. They asked me to go to her birthday party, well, to come after the party, so as to not confuse her.”

“That makes sense. Did they give you a time and address?”

“They did. I’m to show up on June first, at five pm. Using the Yamato to get there should be easy. However, till then we have a job to do.” I stand up shakily and walk out of the library, headed towards the kitchen. Immediately both of the brothers stopped me before I entered the kitchen. 

“You're not working today, or tomorrow. You're still not well.”

“Obviously not. I won't be for a while. Things like this take time.” I murmur, pulling myself out of their grip, and continuing to walk. “You won't be able to stop me, so you might as well help me. Dante, grab the spices from the rack, love, grab the pot over there.” I point at the biggest pot in the kitchen as I turn on the stovetop, and pull out the potion book. 

“I will need water, salt, peppermint, juniper, and tarragon for herbs. After that, I will need fur from a Cerberus, and a tongue from one of the red queens. That should be…” I climb up onto the counter, pulling open the top cabinet, and grabbing the demonic components. “Right here!” I hop back down and look at everything I have. “This should be enough to make at least three batches of warding.”

Grabbing the pot from Vergil, I put it on the stove, and frown, realizing that I can't actually see into it. I frown, and grab one of the chairs from the dining table, and pull it over to the stove. I stand up on it, grabbing the peppermint first, throwing that in just as the water starts to boil. Then I add the salt, tarragon, and juniper, watching as the mixture quickly starts to change to a light grey color before making a small face.

“What's wrong with the color?” Vergil's hand is on the small of my back, keeping me steady as I stand on the chair.

“It's the right color, but the smell is off. Oh!” I quickly grab thalear, putting my hand over the pot, and pricking my finger open, letting a couple of drops go in. I put thalear away, and smell the mixture again, nodding. “I almost forgot that it requires the maker's blood. It's usually only a drop or two, so I should probably make some jars for later…” I mumble, grabbing the Cerberus fur, and sprinkling it in as the potion starts to take on a thicker texture from the blood. Quickly grabbing a spoon, I start stirring the pot.   
“Dante, can you cut up the tongue into small chunks? It won't dissolve otherwise.” I ask as I continue to stir the pot. Making a face at me, he complies, and I watch him as I stir the potion a little faster now, looking at the consistency.   
“It's almost ready for the tongue, so Dante please hurry up with cutting it,” I murmur, and he nods, cutting it into smaller pieces. Vergil throughout the few minutes I've been standing on the chair has kept his hand resting on the lower part of my back, applying little pressure. 

Looking into the pot once again, I motion towards Dante, holding my hand out for the tongue as the consistency is finally right, as it now looks more like a broth than gravy. Handing me the tongue, I quickly toss it in, and continue to stir it for a few minutes watching as the color changes from a light grey to a maroon color. I nod to myself, and take the spoon out of the potion, and climb down off the chair.  
I quickly turn the temperature down to a simmer, and run over to the covers, grabbing the right one and putting it on. “There! Now it should be ready to put in bottles in the next twenty minutes. That takes care of a fifth of my order.”

“A fifth!! Why do they need this much?”

“They don't, the order is for multiple people. I offer different potions at different times, and currently, we only have the ingredients to make five different potions so I make them in batches of three, and sell them to fellow demon hunters that Nico runs across. I make these, and she delivers them, at least once a month. It's a pretty good system.”

“It is. I suppose you'll need more ingredients after this?” Vergil asks, and I nod, getting back up on the chair and looking in the pot. 

“That's done faster than I wanted it to be. It might be too strong… oh well, guess that's what they're stuck with.” I shrug, and motion towards the cabinets beside the stove. “I should only need eighteen bottles. A single batch makes six, so a triple batch would make eighteen.” Vergil starts to hand me a bottle, and I grab a ladle from a drawer and use that to fill the bottles. 

It takes us a good twenty minutes to fill the bottles and label them, but we manage it. Dante ends up being the one to close the bottles while I fill them, and Vergil hands me a new bottle every time I fill one until we finish the pot off.  
“How do you do this by yourself half the time? This is tiring just helping you!” Dante practically shouts, and I shrug as I step off the chair. 

“I'm just used to being tired all the time. Magic is extremely finicky, and half the time if you don't have enough energy it can be dangerous to use. However, since we are half-demons, the consequences for us to use magic is mostly us losing our stamina.” I pause in the middle of my explanation and start to put away the chair, but Vergil takes it from me and does that instead. “Hey, I was gonna put that away myself!”

“Too bad, I did it. Now you can keep explaining how this works once you're sitting down, you're incredibly paler than before you started.”

I sigh, but still sit like he requested, continuing my explanation once both Dante and Vergil are sitting as well. “Since we are half-demons and not fully human, magic is inherently in our blood, so it has much fewer consequences for us unlike what a human would experience. That being said, it would usually only take some of your energy, but with how fast that recharges, it would be like nothing if one of you two were to use it.” I stop for a moment, resting my head against the table, and sighing. “That being said, I can't keep up with the amount of stamina I'm losing, which causes the consequences to start in the first place. I'm constantly cold, no matter what the temperature is. I have to eat at least one blood crystal a month before simple falls start to break my bones. I mean, I could avoid it entirely, but that option feels much more…” I think for a moment, barely managing to pick my head up off the table as I fumble for the word. “Dangerous. No that's not the word either…”

“Why the fuck do you keep using magic then? Especially if it's hurting you this much?” Dante asks this quietly, reaching a hand across the table and grabbing my wrist, holding it up. “Look. your wrist is dwarfed by my hand to the point I could almost break it.” I stared up at him, looking at the comparison. Unsurprisingly he's right, his hand dwarfs mine, and my arm is mostly skin and bone by now. Most of my body is skin and bones, despite me trying my hardest to keep up with magics requirements. 

“I know. If I could stop now, I would. At this point, yes it looks bad, but I know how to fix it. I just need a little more time to get to that part in the tomb.” I murmur, pulling my wrist out of Dante's grip gently. “Despite being almost fluent in the demon's language, the tomb itself is hard to translate. Some of the wording is all wrong for English or even my original language. I get the gist of what I need to do to keep my energy levels the same as yours, but…” I make a face and drop my head onto the table once again. “I don't want to do it, it seems so rude…”

“We can help you do whatever it is that will get you energy at a constant rate! If it makes it so you're back at full health then hell yea we can do it, right Verg?!”  
“He's right Alyx, we can help. Just tell us what you need and we can manage to get it.” Feeling him start to play with my hair makes my head spin and I almost burst into tears, just from the amount of affection I can feel rolling off the two of them, however, I barely manage to contain it. 

“It's not something you can just get for me, it's entirely different,” I murmur, my face still against the table. 

“Then just tell us what it is and we can find a way to work it out!” Dante speaks up once again and I sigh, feeling a slight blush creep up my cheeks. I slowly get up, and motion for them to follow, as I head to Vergil and my room. 

“I don't think I can actually manage to tell you two without fumbling over my words, so I'm just going to hand you my current translation.” Mumbling as I drag myself up the stairs, I hear Vergil and Dante both sigh, and without a second's notice, I'm being lifted off my feet and into one of their arms. 

“We can get you there faster than you can walk.”

“That… okay you're right, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it.” I shift in Dante's arms, trying to get more comfortable, watching as he follows Vergil to our room. He opens the door for Dante and I, and immediately Dante sets me down on the bed, setting me against the pillows as gently as he can. Vergil immediately pulls out one of my notebooks, and grabs the tomb as well, handing it to me as he and Dante sit on the edge of the bed. 

Opening the tomb I sigh, and flip to the midway point of the book, and look down at the beautiful handwriting, and start to read the underlined section. “ ‘Since you've gotten this far my darling flower, I suppose it's time to share with you the lovely curse of being a part succubus. While we are attractive and can easily change our appearance at will, there is one issue that we all have. We have to lure men or women to us in order to survive, whether we want to or not. While I rather enjoy seducing men and draining them of their life, I know that you will have no such joy in doing so. That being said, I also understand that you will likely wait until you've turned into a shadow of yourself before even considering it. You'll be too much like your father, more concerned with saving lives than saving your own,’ At this point in the text, Nevan gets vaguer, and starts to go on about my father.” I murmur, flipping a couple more pages before continuing.   
“ ‘Now, back to what you need to survive. To be at full energy you will have to sleep with your desired partner, draining them of their lifeforce to provide yourself what you need. While it is barbaric sounding, it's one of the only ways to keep you healthy, unless you want to literally steal their lifeforce, which would be to drink human blood. The quantities of both would be to either sleep with someone who has enough energy to sustain you for at least a month, and if you go with drinking human blood, you will need a pint a week. Good luck my child, and don't fret. You will be able to accomplish everything.’ That's the end of her explanation. Do you understand my reluctance now?” I ask, fully leaning back into the pillows as I close the tomb.

Both of the brothers are quiet, and they both look equally perturbed by the idea as I feel. I watch them for a few moments, before trying to stand to put the tomb away. It fails miserably, as after a step or two my knees give out from underneath me, and I fall to the floor. I manage to hold my upper half-up, gritting my teeth in anger at my own body failing me. I'm lifted off the floor after a moment and placed back on the bed against the headboard.

“You should have just asked one of us to put it away Alyx.”

“I wanted to try to do it by myself. I need to be able to do things by myself. I hate this, how trapped I feel within my own damn body, how weak can I possibly fucking be that I can’t stand.” My hands curl, gripping the blanket tightly. “I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to be the monster everyone thinks I am.”

“Stop that.” Dante sits next to me wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “No one here, or working for any branch of Devil May Cry, thinks you're a monster. Hey, Verg tried taking over the world, and we don't even see him as a monster! We could try the pint of blood a week for awhile/”

“I've tested that theory already, almost two months ago. It worked for a little while before it quickly turned to needing almost eight pints in a week. I almost attacked someone because I could hear the blood rushing through their veins, and I was just so hungry. I managed to stop myself, and they made it home safe. After that, I stayed on human food, and quickly lost all the progress I had made.” I murmur, resting my head against his shoulder as I stare across the room towards the mirror facing the bed.   
My reflection stares back at me, practically taunting me as I notice how pale I've gotten and just how thin I've actually gotten. My face is gaunt, and I can see the heavy eyebags I now almost permanently wear, and I can see my collarbone standing out against the tank top I wear. I frown and focus back on the conversation Dante and Vergil are having, as I ended up getting distracted by my own features. 

“That leaves only one option, which it doesn't sound like she enjoys that idea either. Fuck, she’s practically half asleep on my shoulder right now Verg, she can barely focus on anything for more than a few minutes.”

“I've noticed that. I was rather worried earlier when we couldn't find Alyx. I had thought maybe she had gotten hurt again. I know she tries so hard to hide her injuries, whenever she manages to get them, but she always has a tell. Whenever she lies about her health, she always looks away from us, and when she lies in general, she brushes her thumb across her left hand.” Vergil murmurs the last bit, a thoughtful look on his face. 

“Thank you for worrying about me. It's been a while since that's happened before you two.” I murmur slightly, shivering for the first time in hours. 

“Your freezing.” Dante holds up one of my hands and tries to warm it up with his own, but I shake my head at him. 

“It's okay, it can't be helped, after all, most of my body fat is gone. I suppose if I really want to be of use I can go and find someone/”

Both of the brothers immediately shake their heads, and Dante hugs me tightly, keeping me in place. “Absolutely not. This isn't even about you being useful to us for your job! At this point, it's plainly about your health, and its failure.” I frown, making a face, but Dante keeps talking. “And anyway, why would you have to go to someone else, you are literally dating Vergil!”

“I don't want to kill him, so I’d prefer to have sex with a stranger instead. I'm rather fond of you, so I would rather not kill either of you.” I sigh, resting my head on top of Dantes while looking at Vergil, who has an odd look on his face before he speaks up.   
“You do realize that we just gain our energy back, right? Ours replenishes naturally, so it's highly unlikely that it would kill either of us. However, I would prefer that you didn't have sex with my brother unless it's necessary.” 

I hold up a finger, about to contradict him, before stopping, and thinking for a moment. I go over it multiple times in my head before putting my head into my hands. 

“I completely forgot that happens for you two, I feel so fucking stupid. Fucking hell, I should’ve just fuckin thought harder instead of getting in a stupid moral dilemma since fucking March. Fuck, I literally know the only way to kill us and I still didn’t fuckin do anything, god damnit…” I groan loudly, and Dante laughs at my suffering and Vergil chuckles lightly. Glaring up at the two of them, I gently push Dante away, and he immediately falls to the floor groaning dramatically. 

“How dare you push me off the bed, oh how you've wounded me!”

“Oh shut it, boss man. Alright, so we aren’t fuking telling Nero any of this bullshit, he's worried enough as is, okay?” I ask both of them, to which both of them nod. Ruffling my hair and kissing my forehead, Dante leaves the room, proclaiming loudly.

“I'm gonna go drink my single ass to sleep, you two have fun, and Verg don't die. See you two in the morning.” He chuckles as he closes the door, an odd look crossing his face just before it closes. I shake my head at how dramatic he is, turning towards Vergil, I shifted my upper half to face him, catching my reflection in my peripheral once again. He's staring at the door in annoyance for a moment, before sighing, running his hand through his hair.

+++++

“I had been hoping that we wouldn't need to rush into this.”

“What part of this has been rushed, other than knowing that it has to happen? I can wait longer, especially if you aren't comfortable with this Vergil.” I bring my hand to his face, rubbing his cheek with my thumb. Placing his hand over mine he pulls it to his lips, kissing the back of it gently. 

“That's not what I meant when I said it was rushed. While my brother may be fine without being even remotely romantic to his partners, I am not.” He flips my hand over, kissing my inner wrist, and I shiver as I feel one of his teeth drag across my skin. My face heats up for a moment, and I sigh, shaking my head as I chuckle at him. 

“And what makes you think you aren't doing that now? Any type of affection I get from you is romantic, whether it be gentle kisses on my skin, or playing with my hair when you think I'm sleeping. Even just subtle gestures are a big thing, whether you see it or not.” I murmur, pulling my hand out of his, and then wrapping my arms around his neck, and kissing him affectionately. His hands find a place on my hips, gripping onto me tightly, and after a moment one of them moves upwards along my spine, before resting on the back of my neck. We stay like that for a bit, before we break apart, our foreheads touching as we breathe heavily. 

“That's definitely… a start.” He murmurs, licking his lips, as he looks down at mine. I smirk running my tongue along my bottom lip, before slowly running it across my upper lip. One of my hands snakes upwards along his neck, and I grab his hair, pulling him down towards me as I kiss him once again.

Feeling him smile into the kiss, I let us fall backward onto the pillows, landing with a soft thud, and I break the kiss laughing. He chuckles lightly at my mannerism, kissing my forehead, before slowly trailing his kisses down to my jaw, and then down to my neck. 

I jolt slights at the contact, a heavy blush spreading across my face as he keeps kissing my neck and collarbone. Looking up at me for a moment, he lets out a rare smirk and bites down against my neck, and I let out a small cry, feeling his teeth sink into my neck. Pulling away he stares down at me with a smile, bringing his hand to my face as he straddles my waist. 

“Are you alright? You were quite loud.” He says teasingly, and I laugh, my face heating up considerably more than before. “Oh, I haven't seen you this red before, are you embarrassed darling? Well, don't be, because if I can help it you'll keep making noise like that for me.” He says the last part slowly, as he leans back down, stealing another kiss from my lips, and I groan into it, wrapping my arms around his neck once again.

He pulls me up from the bed, breaking the kiss as he takes off his shirt. I lean forward for a moment, a small grin on my face, as I kiss his jaw, repeating what he had done to me. He groans, and lets out a sharp breath, as I bite down on his shoulder, as gently as I can, knowing that my teeth could easily do far more damage than his. I pull away, looking at the bruising I left, and wince. 

“Didn't mean to make the bruise that dark immediately… I was trying to be gentle.” I make a small face of annoyance, and Vergil laughs at me, pulling up my shirt, and throwing it off onto the floor, along with his shirt. 

“Don't worry about that. And anyway, I'll just heal remember? It's you that I have to be gentle with. Hopefully, after this, you'll be able to heal faster, but the bruises I leave will last.” He murmurs, in my ear, before going back to kissing me, one hand at my waistline, and another trailing up and down my spine. I pant heavily into the kiss, and deepen it, gripping his hair tightly as I feel myself start to get worked up over the constant touch on my body. 

Quickly pulling me against him, I’m suddenly situated into his lap, my legs wrapped around his waist as he bites onto my shoulder once again, and crying out I grip onto his hair tightly as more pressure builds in my body, feeling like I'm going to burst from it. With one arm placed behind my back to keep me in his lap, he uses his other hand to play with my hair again, something he apparently enjoys no matter the setting. He pulls his head away from my shoulder, and kisses up the base of my neck, leading to my hairline, before kissing my forehead gently. 

“If you need me to stop, I can darling.” I shake my head, a deep blush coating my cheeks as I breathe heavily. 

“We can keep going. This is, just very…” I pause, thinking about the word that would be right. 

“Taxing? Overwhelming?” I nod at the last word that Vergil provides, still breathing heavily. 

“Just not in a bad way! I'm just not used to this type of affection, or pleasure.” I murmur, setting my head against his shoulder, trying to calm down my pounding heart. 

He hums in response, bringing his hands down to my hips, and runs his fingers under the waistband of my shorts, and I shudder against him, as shivers run up my spine. Lifting me from his lap Vergil sets me down onto my back, hands still in the waistband of my shorts as he looks down at me. He pulls them off of me completely throwing them onto the floor without a care in the world. Surprisingly, he doesn't take off his own pants and instead looks me up and down, smiling. 

“Despite how small you've become, you are still as stunning as you were when we first met. In fact, the only reason you've changed was that you weren't getting the energy you need, which I can happily supply you with now.” He murmurs, leaning down and kissing me, running a hand along my side until he reaches my hip, where his hand turns and heads towards my naval and continues down from there. I tense once his hand reaches his destination, breathing heavily into the kiss once he starts rubbing my clit with his thumb, feeling the pressure start to build up once again. He doesn't relent with his movements even after a few minutes, and I start squirming trying to get away from the hand feeling the pressure building up to the point where it's almost painful.

“I’m not stopping until you cum, and then we can start on the real fun, my love.” He murmurs into my ear as he pulls away from kissing me, and uses his other hand to stop my hips from squirming away from him. I bite my lip harshly as another wave of pleasure hits me, whimpering loudly from my spot beneath Vergil, who continues to smile gently down at me as he continues to play with me. 

“Don't try to hide your noises darling, there's nothing wrong with them.” Leaning back down he kisses me deeply and goes faster against my clit. 

At the sudden change in pace, the pressure snaps, and I cry out against his lips, my hips bucking against his hand as I orgasm. My hands reach up for his back, anything to grab onto to try to ride out this intense wave. I grab onto his shoulders, holding onto him tightly as my entire body shudders against him, and I let out more whimpers as he keeps rubbing me, fully riding me through the entire thing.   
After a few moments of this, he stops rubbing my clit slowly. Pulling his hand away, he brings it up to my face and holds it as he keeps kissing me. He pulls away slowly, smiling gently down at me. I'm not entirely sure as to why, as I'm covered in sweat, and am breathing heavily to the point I feel like it's wheezing.

“Do you really find me attractive like this?” I groan, wiping sweat off of my forehead, crinkling my nose at it. He nods, and stands up for a moment, going into the bathroom connected to our room, and comes back a moment later holding a washcloth. I sit up as he sits on the edge of the bed, and I go to grab the cloth from him, and he pulls it away. 

“I can do it. You're not wasting any of your energy until you gain all of it back.” He murmurs and uses the washcloth to wipe away the sweat covering my upper half. After cleaning me up, he goes back to the bathroom, most likely to put it away.

“I'm not entirely unable to use my body…” I respond slowly, taking a shuddering breath as I start to get cold again, and I wrap my arms around my torso, trying to retain what little body heat I have. Vergil walks back out of the bathroom and I can feel his stare from my spot on the bed. 

“Why didn't you get under the covers if you were cold?”

“I was waiting for you, and it's not like they'll help me retain body heat I don't have.”

He sighs, and walks to our bed, opening the covers and putting me under them, then getting fully undressed and climbing in after, pulling the covers over the both of us. Reaching out for me, he winces slightly at how cold I am, and simply pulls me closer to him and I sigh as I nestle myself against him, basking in the warmth he offers. 

“Do you want to keep going, or just sleep? It's almost nine.”

“What, are you tired?” I joke, running my thumb along the back of his neck. 

“Not in the slightest. I could stay awake all night, which is why I was asking you. You tend to sleep very little, but need it far more than Dante and I.”

“I'll be fine. I promise.” I smiled at him, kissing him gently. He grins against the kiss, flipping me onto my back as he hovers over me.

“Well then, I'll get started on that, my love.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! So you're getting a chapter super early because I might not be able to update in the next few coming weeks, as I'm moving next week, and school is going to be hitting me full force! Sorry if any of you were looking forward to a regular updating schedule, but that might not be in for a while.


	9. A Lingering Hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! It's been a fair bit, but I'm finally all moved into my new place, so hopefully, I can get to editing more chapters so I can release them to yall faster! Hope you enjoy this one.

May 17th, 2020, 3:45 AM

‘Over the course of four days, I can see why my mother had preferred to sleep with men, as the energy you get from them is almost ten times what you get from just blood alone. I've already gained a fair portion of my strength back, and while I had looked gaunt before, I only look relatively thin now. I think one of the small blessings that I get to have that my mother didn't was that I only have to sleep with one man.’ I finish writing the last part in my journal, putting my pen behind my ear as I close the journal I've been keeping on my progress over the months. I rest my head against the window, looking out of the window seat in one of the library windows. It's a night out, and I wonder how I haven't fallen asleep yet for a moment, before remembering that I'm not entirely exhausted after barely doing anything.

While it has only been a few days, I feel far better than I had on blood, almost completely invigorated, rather than just not tired. I run my hands through my hair, suddenly realizing the length is getting out of hand. Since I usually keep it up in a ponytail or bun, I hardly mess with it, but now that it falls to my waist, and seems to grow longer every day, I'm tempted to cut it all off again. 

Standing up with a long sigh, I leave the library, headed to Dante's office, which happens to be right in the room adjacent to the main entrance of the mansion. Taking the short walk to get into Dantes office, I don't even bother knocking on the open door frame, knowing that he usually doesn't care if he gets interrupted. 

Looking up at me from his new desk Dante grins, setting down his magazine. “Now there's my favorite thinker! What's up, Vergil not keeping you company?” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, and I roll my eyes at his antics, shoving him lightly as I sit on his desk. 

“Nah, just thought I'd come and visit. And he's giving me enough to satisfy me, we don't have to be attached at the hip for me to be in a healthy relationship with him.” I smirk at Dante, and he makes a face at me, and I respond in kind. 

“So are you only here to bother me from my very important work?” He questions, leaning back in his chair and setting his feet on the desk.

“Usually. In all honesty, have you really gotten any that you needed to go on? I mean the ones for pro bono aren't showing up for once. Maybe we've scared enough off to leave people alone.” I joke slightly, lying down on his desk, my head off the side, as I stare at him, my hair falling to the floor. “That being said, I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

“Well shoot, we don't have all day, well we do but still.”

“Help me cut my hair? It's getting far too long, and I wanted to try a different style. One that you're probably familiar with, as it involves a razor.” I smirk at him from my spot on his desk, and he readily stands up. 

“I'll gladly help! I've been wondering if you were going to cut it, or were trying to set a record. I think I have a thing in my room, let's go!” I stand up from the desk, grabbing my notebook and pen while following him. Dante was to his room way before I got there, as I hadn't seen the point in rushing through this. When I get there, he has a chair pulled up in the bathroom, with a towel on the floor already. 

“Wow, you work fast.”  
“Usually, now get your ass in the chair, we have work to do before Vergil gets back from his semi-solo mission.” He plugs in the razor turning it on. Sitting down, I take out the pen, watching as my hair falls even more towards the floor. I grab the shears before Dante has the chance to start bringing the razor near my hair, cutting it in an uneven edge, just below my chin. 

“You should have an easier time getting the style now, without messing up.” The hair falls to the floor with a soft thud, and I look at Dante’s reaction in the mirror, and he's pouting down at me.

“But I wanted to make it satisfying!”

“Oh don't whine, you can do that next time if you want. In fact, I'll trust you enough to not even watch you do it.” I close my eyes and smile, setting my hands on my lap. I hear Dante exhale sharply, and feel the hum of the razor against my neck as he starts trimming my hair off. 

May 17th, 2020, 11:00 AM

Both Dante and I sit anxiously in the entrance hall, waiting for Vergil to get back. I anxiously rub the back of my neck, feeling the odd texture of newly shaved hair.   
“I didn't cut it too short right?”

“Not at all! I'm just nervous to see Vergil's reaction to it. Malcolm only let me get it trimmed, so I never really got to keep the hairstyle I had wanted to while we were married. I ended up falling onto the longer hairstyles out of comfort once I had left, but after leaving my parents for the second time in my life, I cut it to a short bob.” I explain, fidgeting with my fingers now as I stare down at the floor. 

“That sounds annoying.” He doesn't try to reassure me or make any other statement, instead choosing to stay silent as we continue to wait for Vergil to get home.

“Did he have anyone go with him? Like Nico or Nero?”

“I think he might have taken Nero, but left Nico back in Fortuna. Probably to have some father and son bonding time. Speaking of bonding time, we should all spend some time out of the house doing things, exploring the new Red Grave City!”

“That's just because you want to go out club-hopping isn't it.”

“Maybe.” Dante stops talking and stands as the front door opens, with both Nero and Vergil walking through the doors. Neither of them looks too hurt, but they are arguing with one another, mostly on the bag that Vergil is holding, that appears to be dripping blood onto the floor.

“She won't want that! You know when you said you were going to pick Mom up something, I thought it would be flowers, a new book, not that!” Nero motions to the bag and Vergil sighs deeply shaking his head.   
“She likes things that are useful, and this is. We can ask her when she sees it, on whether she likes it anyway.” And with that, both of them actually finished walking through the front doors, and locked eyes with me.

I cross my arms and stare up at both of them, then stare at the bag dripping blood. Rubbing my temple, I motion towards Dante. 

“Go get a bottle from the kitchen, please. I would prefer not to waste blood.” Pausing, I turn my head and stare at Dante, who quickly nods, and leaves to go find me a bottle just so he won't have to listen to the oncoming rant. “Now… What the fuck is in the bag Vergil? Nero, you stay right there, you are not exempt from my rant.”

Both of them still staring at me, not once looking away. Nero is staring at my hair, and Vergil was at first, before looking down at what I had dragged out of our closet.   
“Is that my sweater?”

“Obviously. You weren't here so I stole it instead of you.” I shrug, before running my hand through my now short hair, ruffling it slightly. “Now you said you would be home, at fucking nine, and it's fucking eleven! Why the fuck were you late getting home?” I growl out, and he holds up the dripping bag.

“This is why. It took a little longer to harvest than I had wanted it to.” He hands me the bag gently, and I wave my hand at the pool of blood, watching as it floats upwards into a small ball. I look into the bag carefully, my eyes going wide at the variety of ingredients inside the bag.

“You didn’t!!!!”  
“I did. You had mentioned that because you were low on supplies that you only could make some of the potions instead of the amount you needed. We have been focusing on giving them to Nico, but I think after this she wouldn't mind sharing resources.” He murmurs quietly, and I wave my hand at the bag, letting go of it completely as it floats in the air without issue. After that I fling my arms around Vergil, hugging him fully. 

“Thank you. This was very thoughtful and I do like it. Now, I do have to go find a home for the ingredients. Nero, would you like to learn where this stuff goes?” I let go of Vergil slowly, turning towards Nero, who nods slowly, and I grin, grabbing him by the wrist, and pulling him into the kitchen, where chaos will quickly reign.

May 23rd, 2020, 9:47 AM

With everybody on a mission, I’m finally left to my own devices for what feels like the first time in months. However, I’m still acting like everybody’s still here, as I would rather continue to work than relax. Staring down at the single batch I have on the stove I sigh, rubbing away the sweat building up on my forehead.

The entire kitchen is a mess, filled with unwashed pans and weird stains from the potions as well as Dante’s feeble attempts at cooking. Grabbing a jar from above the stove, I open it, crinkling my nose at the smell of old blood. “No ones here… I could just use fresh blood anyway… no one to yell at me..” I murmur slowly looking between the bottle and my hand, before shaking my head, and adding a few drops from the bottle. “No, that would be going against what they asked me to do.”  
Thinking back on the promise I made when they all left, I sigh remembering the words clearly.

“Now, don’t be too hard on yourself okay? Just try to relax while we’re gone, it shouldn’t take more than a week. Don’t get hurt while we’re gone.”

Their faces had looked worried as if they knew something was going to happen, or maybe it’s just my bad luck. I shake my head, focusing back onto the batch of potions, which thank god I had, as it looked like it was going to boil over.  
“Shit!” I curse loudly, turning down the burner and staring into the pot worriedly hoping that I hadn’t ruined it otherwise I was going to have to start over. Sticking my finger in, I pull it out quickly, wincing at the heat. I lick what I got on my finger, tilting my head trying to see if it’s wrong or not.

In doing that I suddenly remember what I had been making, and curse even louder, running to the sink and running the tap, trying to rinse my mouth out as quickly as I can before it affects me. Coughing loudly on the water, I spit it out after a moment, and sigh loudly, rubbing the back of my head nervously. Going back to the potion I start to bottle it, then label it so I don’t mix it up with any of the others I have lying around until Nico can start selling them off. I pull out the labels and a pen writing down ‘weakener’ six times.

“Fuck me… I just got energy back, I don’t have the fucking time to deal with this. I need to look up symptoms again and keep an eye on how they progress…” I murmur as I put them in a box, and duct tape it shut, writing in big letters on the top ‘NOT FOR CONSUMPTION’. Putting the box in the second pantry where all of the potions are stored in labeled boxes, I stare at the mess I’ve made in two days as well as the mess Dante left behind, groaning loudly.

“Fuck… I might as well deal with it now so if I start getting sick it’s actually done.” Staring at the dishes for a good moment, I sigh again and start to work on them despite not actually wanting to.

I end up finishing after an hour, and I already feel as though I’m burning up, sighing at my stupidity for forgetting what type of potion I was making. Managing to make my way out of the kitchen I grab my books and head to the office, knowing that I’ll still need to answer the phone in case any jobs come in. Sitting down at Dante’s desk I start reading up on the effects of the potion as well as doing some spare paperwork.

Once I find the full list of symptoms as well as the full effect of the potion, I pale, groaning loudly. “I fucked up… oh I fucked up… they are gonna kill me when they get back…” I murmur, staring down at the list of symptoms and effects.  
‘This potion when consumed or comes in contact with skin will considerably weaken the target or opponent. It will cause high fever, shortness of breath, loss of consciousness, loss of mobility, bleeding from oral or nasal cavities, and potential death in high doses.’

I stop reading from that point on, putting my head in my hands, letting out a muffled scream. I had doubly fucked myself over by ingesting and touching it, so I’m in for a hellish week while the boys are gone. I sit up fully, and take a deep breath steeling my resolve. “I’ll handle this all on my own, no need to involve the crew, I’ll make sure of it!”

May 26th, 2020, 3:57 PM

Sitting in Dante’s office on the floor, since I haven’t been able to move for the past day and a half, I hear the main door open and multiple voices start to go throughout the halls. I don’t even bother opening my mouth to try to call out to them, as I ended up losing my voice a couple of hours after ingesting the potion. Luckily for me, the phone didn’t go off, so I was spared from scaring off customers. The voices grow louder and I wince from the volume.

“Oh, I’m so glad we made it home earlier than we thought. I have a feeling that Alex was not relaxing like she said she would, but we checked the kitchen and there’s no mess or anything new, so maybe for once she actually… nevermind.” The door to the office opens and I turn my head towards the door from under the blankets, my head feeling like it’s filled with cotton. I can vaguely make out Dante and Trish, raising my hand slightly in greeting.

“What the fuck happened this time Alyx?” Trish groans, walking forwards and kneeling down beside me. “You don’t look injured just, sick? Shouldn’t you be unable to get sick?” Dante nods, looking down at me in annoyance, and I grimace. Opening my mouth slightly I lean forward, pushing Trish out of the way, and blood spills on the floor as I gag on it, the bitter metallic taste making me wince. 

“That’s true. But I…” I spit out more blood, feeling the anxiety in the room rise, as heavy footsteps approach and I panic, trying to finish spitting out the blood. “I fucked up. I was trying to… to finish an order or two, and I.. and I ended up spacing out and forgetting what I was making.” 

Vergil steps in the doorway and looks at Dante wondering why he’s just standing there. “Is there a reason you're just standing here..” He cuts himself off seeing me on the floor and sighs deeply bringing his hand to the bridge of his nose. “I’m guessing something happened again? Well, nothing too bad, you aren’t covered in blood completely.” 

Walking forwards, he notices the blood pool beside me, and sighs again, before fully picking me up off the floor. I curse slightly, my voice sounding hoarse, and I wince as my head spins from the sudden movement. Black dots fill my vision slowly and everything around me is going in and out, and the last thing I hear before succumbing to my fever is Nero yelling “mom!” 

May 23rd, 2020, 4:30 AM

Everything hurts. I can’t breathe, why can’t I breathe? Struggling to open my eyes, I managed to open them, finding myself in bed, and surprisingly not on the floor like before. Sitting up slowly, I cough out more blood and sigh in annoyance once the coughing fit ceases, wiping the blood away from my lips. I feel my forehead, pulling away once I feel the heat of my skin. I stare at the bathroom that’s across the room, sighing once again.   
Rubbing my face, I push the sheet off of me, finding that I’m only in underwear.

“Well, at least my clothes won’t be ruined.. neither will Vergil’s…” I mumble and wince as I start to move my body every slight movement causing pain to erupt and send me tumbling. I grit my teeth through the pain, and the fever as I slowly stagger my way to the bathroom. The metallic flavor fills my mouth, and I gag once again, pain flaring in me as I struggle to breathe. 

Hands catch me as I start to fall forward, blood seeping from my open mouth as I choke on my own blood. Hot tears well in my eyes, and I cry once I can breathe, falling to my knees fully, grasping onto the hands holding my upper half loosely.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m right here, I’m not going anywhere love. I’m not leaving you to pull through this by yourself.” I hear Vergil murmur in my ear, as he pulls me up to my feet, before maneuvering himself so he can just carry me bridal style. Kissing my forehead gently, I stare up at him as he pulls away, his jaw is tight, his features hard as he looks away from me for a moment, bringing me into the bathroom, and closing the door behind us. Setting me on the counter, he leans me against the mirror, and grabs a washcloth and two of our towels. He hands me the washcloth and grabs another towel putting it on the pool of blood by the bathroom door. I wince as he cleans up my blood, turning on the tap and putting the washcloth he gave me under the warm water.   
Washing my face with the washcloth, I pull it away, finding it covered in more blood than I had thought I was covered in. The smell of it hits me before the lack of air does, and I gag once again, more blood spilling into the sink. Vergil quickly turns around from his cleaning, and I hear his heavy footsteps rushing toward me, and I feel dizzy once again, a hand loosely holding my upper half up as I choke on more of my blood.

“How long have you been doing this? Once you can speak can you please give me answers?” He almost begs, and I can hear the worry in his voice, nodding I continue to gag on the blood leaving my body. After a few minutes of this, I finally get air and my vision steadies itself, some of it blurry, but functional.

Answering slowly, I rub my throat, hoping that will make it work better. “... the twenty-third. You had already been gone for two days. This will be the… the fourth day. It…” I pause for a moment, breathing heavily as I feel my vision sway once again. “I was working on a batch of potions that were requested, and I got caught up… caught up thinking about other things, that I completely forgot what I had been making. I made the mistake of putting my finger in it, and tasting it.” 

Vergil nods slowly, staring out the window at the rising dawn, thinking heavily. He turns on the shower and keeps his hand in the falling water. Nodding he walks out of the bathroom and doesn’t come back for a few moments. I sigh to myself and look at the rising sun, wanting so badly to just walk to the window and watch it rise, by my own will, my own power. “I still ended up screwing myself over, even when I hadn’t meant to,” I murmur, and Vergil walks in, holding a barstool from the kitchen. 

Setting the chair into our shower, he walks over to me, picking me up once again, and setting me in the chair. The water is colder than I expected and I yelp trying to get out immediately. Vergil keeps me in the chair, shaking his head at me.  
“The water is lukewarm dear, I know it feels freezing to you, but please, I need to get your fever down. It’s not healthy for you to have had it this long, even if you caused it yourself with a potion.” He strokes my head, and I shiver wrapping my arms loosely around myself as I can’t manage to do anything else. Kissing my head gently, he rubs my temples. I continue to shiver in the chair throughout the entire shower, and while I know it’s for my own good it’s not any fun, and all it makes me want to do is sleep.  
The water eventually stops feeling so cold, but by then, I’m already exhausted. Vergil turns it off, the squeaking of the faucet making my already fuzzy brain feel worse. Picking me up once again, he grabs a towel and starts drying me off, as quickly as he can.

“Is there anything that is in your book that you could make to stop this?” His voice is quiet, and I have to focus for a moment, wondering if anything in it will work. 

“Well, possibly. This is the first time I’ve thought about… about a counter for any of my potions or spells.”

He doesn’t respond to me, instead finishing drying me off, and picking me back up. Taking me back into the bedroom, he closes the door behind us with his foot, before walking to the bed and setting me against the headboard. The sheets feel soft, and I run my hand along with them, quickly getting distracted from anything we were doing before. Well, that is until Vergil came back to the bed, sitting beside me. I look up from the sheets, finding that he’s holding one of his sweaters and that he has gotten dressed.

“Here. I know you like wearing them, so I figured I’d grab this instead of your other clothes.” He speaks slowly, and leans me forward, putting the sweater on over my head. “Let’s get you downstairs, okay? We need to find a solution to this.” Once the sweater is on me fully, he picks me up once again, and I wrap my arms around his neck loosely. Walking out of our room, I lean my head against his chest, trying to even out my breathing, which due to the potion, made it hard to speak or even breathe properly. By the time I focus on my surroundings, we've ended up in the kitchen, and Vergil is setting me down by the sink, moving the faucet just in case more blood decides to come up. I watch him walk around the kitchen, pulling out a small saucepan, and bringing it to the stove. Setting it on one of the burners, he catches me watching him, and turns towards me, not turning the burner on.

“I tried talking to you while I brought you down here, but I could tell you didn't hear any of it. You looked completely empty, like a husk.” His brows furrow as he gets to the last part of his sentence, and I sigh deeply, motioning for him to keep doing what he was doing before. 

“It's, well, complicated to explain. It is one of the side effects, but it fits under the loss of consciousness, so I didn't write it down on the box.” I mumble, watching him bring down potion ingredients from the top cabinets. “It was a fairly simple potion, but I never make it in more than one batch, as the steam from that amount can lead to getting affected by the potion.” Turning my head away from him, I take a deep breath, staring out at the yard, and the rising sun. “I'm guessing you're trying to find a potion that will start to get me better?”

“Since you don't seem interested in trying, I will.” He pauses and sighs deeply, and I hear the burner turn on. “That... that came out wrong. I apologize.”

“Don't. I understand. Expressing emotions is difficult, and I know you don't mean to sound harsh, my love.” I murmur, turning my head back towards him, and watching as he clenches his hands tightly against one of the jars, as he sets it down.

“...I'm angry, and I'm disappointed. But more than that there is this annoying feeling like I haven't done enough, that I could have done something to stop you from getting hurt again.” His words are sharp and to the point. I wince at the last part, exhaling sharply.

“However, I know that none of it was my fault, leaving me with the heavy idea to never let you out of my sight again. Because every time you are left alone, you get hurt, or something happens.”

“Hey, this time was just stupidity, the others were bad luck!” I protest, trying to get off the counter for a moment, before stopping because I wasn't getting anywhere. He crosses his arms, facing me. 

“And? The events still happened. It doesn't matter at this point if it's a coincidence or not Alyx, it's best you at least have someone with you. Well, at least in the house.”

Opening and closing my mouth, I try to come up with a counter to what I believe is a stupid rule, but find that there isn't any flaw in his logic. I frown and nod. He uncrosses his arms and goes back to grabbing ingredients. I turn back towards the window, watching the scenery of the garden, and losing focus once again. 

A hand grips my shoulder tightly, and voices register in my head once again, as I realize I'm not turned towards the window. Looking at who’s gripping my shoulder tightly, I find that it's Nero. He sighs in relief that he finally got my attention, looking me up and down, checking me for wounds, or just blood. “Oh thank god you're just sick, and not hurt.” He hugs me, and I barely can bring my arms around him, feeling like my entire body is getting heavier the more I'm awake. After a moment or two of hugs, he pulls away and he gets the same look on his face that Vergil had, and I mentally prepare to be lectured again.

“Now what the fuck happened? Also, I had been trying to get your attention for over twenty minutes, and Dad told me it wasn't going to work.”

“You're lucky that you managed to get her out of that, you could have hurt her if your grip was any tighter. This damned potion took most of her strength away.”

“Well.. that is the point of it?” I speak slowly, wincing as both of them stare down at me fiercely. 

“Explain. Now.”

“Nero, go grab the box that says not for consumption, that's in the second pantry.” Walking away from me, and going past Vergil, he opens it, and looks through the boxes, before pulling out the right box and setting it next to me. Using my fingernail, I cut through the duck tape with ease, and grab one of the bottles, reading the label out loud. 

“ ‘Weakening potion.’ I barely make it, but this time it was requested by a pair of demon hunters, who said they would pay triple for an entire batch. I figured Dante would be happy with the extra money, so I made it. It can be used as a somewhat of a bioweapon, but only reacts if you touch or ingest the substance. Essentially it's every poison in a bottle, mixed with magic that causes extensive loss of any motor function. Well, with humans anyway.” I murmur, the last bit, setting it down in my lap. “Demons, however, that's entirely different. It attacks their energy source and causes massive bleeding until they die. With half-demons, as you can clearly see, we do not die, instead, we get what humans do, as well as the excessive bleeding from the demons.” I finish speaking, looking back up to the father and son duo, who both look confused, or rather worried. 

“Alyx. When did you start making this?”

“Uhh, late august. Back then I was far more careful than I was a few days ago, as I was still new to making the potions despite already knowing the process. It happened to be the first one I successfully made.”

They both look at each other, and Nero takes the box, leaving me with the bottle. I shrug off the weird looks, but it sits in the back of my mind despite the fact I know why they're so worried. Nero comes back over, and sits on top of the counter with me, telling me about the mission as I lean my head against his shoulder. I watch Vergil and see him grab the bottle of blood, and feel my eyes widen, as I try to stop him from pouring it in. “Vergil! Don't put that in!”

Despite me yelling this abruptly, he still ends up pouring the blood in, muttering curses to himself as he quickly sets the bottle down and turns to face me again. My face goes pale as I stare at him, and I quickly try to get off the counter, trying to reach the potion in time.

“Whoa! Mom doesn't try to get up!” Nero keeps me on the counter with minimal effort from his point and I groan holding my face with one of my hands.

“That's my blood, Verg. You can't use someone else's blood in making a potion unless you're tailoring it specifically for them, and even then that's only with two types of potions! Blood of the user has only put into power the magic, as it uses your own energy.” Feeling more of my energy leave me, I shake my head trying to get rid of the overwhelming fogginess that's starting to come in, forcing myself to stay awake. 

“I had thought it was normal demon blood.”

“It's not. This one just labeled blood, the other has a D on it for demon blood. I labeled them, for the most part, Dante wrote some as well at one point when we added them to the collection. I put that jar in after realizing it would be better to have a supply so I wouldn't have to keep opening my arm or my finger.” Nero is basically holding me up at this point, and black spots are starting to appear at the edge of the vision.

“Add yours, quickly. Wait just come here, Nero I apologize.”

Vergil quickly realizes what I mean and rushes over, while Nero is doing his best to keep me upright. Putting his arm next to my face, I weakly grab onto it, before biting into it, metallic blood filling my mouth once more. 

“Oh shit, okay.”

Warm blood goes down my throat, and before long the taste changes to something sweeter, and I bite deeper, tasting honey, with hints of lavender. I can feel his hand on the back of my head gently playing with my hair, as I swallow the blood. The taste gets richer the more I have, and I can feel my features turning a bit more animalistic, everything in the room quickly becoming brighter, the sounds of the boiling potion and the heartbeats of everyone in the manor fill my ears, and I pull away, likely the wound, watching as it closes. 

Standing up, I rush to the potion, smelling the ingredients and quickly grabbing the ones needed, instantly recalling the potion he was trying to make.

“You tried to make Amortia? I'm guessing it was for the fact it’s known as a healing potion, even with its heavy consequences.” I murmur focusing completely on the potion trying to ignore the sound of hearts beating, and ignoring the gnawing hunger in my stomach. ‘I have to ignore it, if I don't, I won't be able to control myself. I need to focus, just focus.’ I repeat the words in my head over and over as the potion comes to fruition, becoming a golden amber color, and I grab a glass, instead of a bottle, pouring it in.

“Are you going to explain what just happened or are you leaving that to my father?” Nero speaks up after a moment of silence, and I sigh running a hand through my hair as I pick up the glass, turning to face both of them. 

“Nero, in order to be able to actually live, and not just survive, I need to have life energy. It's the one food source that lets me keep my stamina. Blood is the second-best choice, while sex is the first.” I speak bluntly, and down all of the potions, wincing at the burn that fills my throat and soon my entire body. I stare down at my arm, watching my veins turn a deep gold color.

“Wait what!?” Nero gets on his feet looking between me and Vergil, making a face before shuddering and shaking his head. “I.. okay I get why I wasn't told, but now I can’t get it out of my head.” 

Vergil chuckles slightly at his son, before staring at my now golden veins, and walking over, gently grabbing my arm and looking at it. Hearing more heartbeats getting closer, I exhale sharply, turning my head to the door, trying not to show too much duress. 

“Well hello! How're you feeling?” Nicos the first to enter, and I vaguely see Dante and Trish behind her, but my focus ends up on her, and her soft heartbeat, the sounds so alluring I almost take a step forward, but Vergil's hands tighten, almost as if he can sense what I'm feeling. Responding slowly, I smile, staring at Nico in particular.

“A little better. Should be fully recharged in a week or two if everything goes to plan.” My hair falls on my face slightly, and I push it back with one hand, and I hear Trish gasp, and she pushes past them staring at my arm.

“You fucking didn’t! You know what that shit does!” She growls out, holding onto my other arm, and I look between her and Vergil groaning. 

“It’s fine, jeez. It's only a little painful anyway, and at least I can move around now and do things…” At the last bit I stop because everyone has collectively turned to glare at me. “...okay, nevermind, I'll just, read? Or something fun?”

“No, what you will be doing is going back to sleep, and then tomorrow you can do things if you really feel the damn need, but you better fucking not do too much, because you have to have a fair portion of your strength for the first remember?” Vergil is the one who speaks, and he is blunt, getting straight to the point. I nod slowly, getting my hands out of both of their grips, and they frown at my still golden veins. 

“So, why did it turn your veins gold exactly?” Nero walks forward joining both Trish and Vergil's group around me, and I sigh deeply, rubbing my face. 

“Well, it's one of Amortia’s consequences. It'll be gone in a day or so, but it just shows what's actually happening throughout the nervous system. Despite its power of healing, Amortia is one of the ones with the most consequences, or rather the biggest consequence. Your entire nervous system feels like it's being liquified by lava as it heals your body, which is why most people give it to a person while in a coma, or while they sleep, so they don't scream as they heal.” I stare down at the veins, and clench my hand, before releasing the pressure. “I’m lucky to have a nervous system that only partially works, so it's not as painful compared to what others experienced. It's bad, but, at least I can walk now.” I shrug, patting Nero on the head, and heading out of the kitchen, and up to my room.


	10. Necessary Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Here's chapter ten, sorry it's a little late. There is another scene, and you can skip it if you want, it's marked by asterisks. just skip past both sets of these: ***, and you'll be fine. Hope everyone enjoys it!

June 1st, 2020, 4:53 PM

Taking a deep breath, I stare up at the colonial house in front of me. I wasn't ready for this, but this was the only time they said they would accept for me to meet her for the first time. Wringing out my hands I look around at the suburban neighborhood and shudder, shaking my head at it. I never understood how people could live so close to one another, and even tolerate the neighbors they had, as I had never been a people person. Shaking my head once again, I try to keep my features cool, and stare down at the gift in my hand. It was a set of my favorite book, which surprisingly wasn't about demons, but rather about the nature of flowers and their vast color set.

I walk up to the door, breathing deeply before knocking, feeling like I'm signing my own death warrant. The door doesn't immediately open, which I suppose is normal since they are human after all. I hear light footsteps approach the door, and I take a step back from it but don't move any further away. A woman opens the door, staring out at me as she does, surprise overtaking her features.

“You actually showed up. We, we didn't think you would show up, oh my god.” She motions for me to come in, her surprise written all over her face. Closing the door behind me as I walk in, she starts talking again. “My name's Cass, and my husband's name is Uriah, but you probably aren't interested in that.” I watch Cass wring her hands and I smile gently, shaking my head. 

“It is. You raised my daughter and became her parents when I couldn't. Of course, you're important.” 

She goes quiet, and simply leads me through the hallway, and into the kitchen and dining room, where she stops and faces me once again, motioning for me to be quiet as she points to the living room, which is across from the dining room.   
“What if she doesn't come? I mean, she didn't want me in the first place, so I wouldn't blame her. It.. it will still hurt though, knowing she exists, but refuses to see me.” her voice is small, and I find myself struggling not to cry from her words.

“Well, that would be on her, not on you sweetpea. Just remember, your mom and I love you very much. It doesn't matter that you aren't ours by blood, but rather by heart.” I hear Uriah speak in a calming tone, and hear him patting her back. I look over to Cass, who holds up a finger, before calling out to them both. 

“Hey, we have a visitor! She came just in time as well.” She motions for me to follow her, and I nod, walking behind her quietly finally getting a glimpse of what she looks like. Before I can process it, Cass speaks again, this time to my daughter, who stares at me in shock, and I stare back at her, trying my best not to break down sobbing. “Now, Melantha, this is your birth mother. Alyx, this is Melantha, your daughter.”

“Dark flower. Wonderful pronunciation with that.” I murmur, sitting down on the floor in front of her, watching as Cass sits on her other side, and Uriah stays in his seat. “Greek names are some of my favorites.” Smiling gently, I stare at my daughter, taking in all her features. She has mid-length hair, that's pure white, just as I had expected, and her eyes are the deepest blue, unlike mine, which is dark green. She looks me up and down, before focusing on my hair, standing up and touching it gently, before pulling back. 

“Well, I see where I get my hair from.” She mumbles, and sits down, frowning. 

“Your eyes come from your father. Your complexion comes from your grandfather, who passed that down to me as well. You get most of your features from my father actually, barely anything from your own father.” I speak slowly, and for a moment my English sounds wrong, and I frown. “I hope that came outright, but then again, English isn't my first language.”

With that Melanthea leans forward, curious, and her parents do the exact same motion as well, only Uriah is the one to speak. “How many languages do you know?”

“Eight. In my home, we spoke English and Italian, so I already grew up with those. I learned five more in college for my doctorate, French, German, Greek, Latin, and Spanish. Right now, I'm almost finished with translating and deciphering Enochian, otherwise known as the language of demons.” I shrug at it, holding the book up, and handing it to Melanthea, who hesitantly takes it. Opening the wrapping paper slowly, she stares down at the hardcover book on flowers and their color sets. 

“Thank you? Why flowers though?”

I sigh, rubbing the back of my neck. “Well, it was my favorite book, and I figured getting a copy for you would help you understand my personality more.”

Her parents share a look over her head, and I tilt my head slightly, trying to gauge what they're thinking. They look back at me, looking me up and down, once again, and I scratch the back of my head from the staredown. Speaking up, Melanthea stares at me, setting the book in her lap. 

“Why did you give me up? Why wasn't I enough for you?”

“It wasn't safe for you to stay with me. In fact, I hadn't even known I was pregnant with you until I was five months along. There was no warning.” I sigh deeply, thinking back to how everything went down. “I had you a few weeks after I turned eighteen, and I was left alone for everything. Despite marrying your father, he didn't care about me and only was with me due to his parent's wishes. I had you at home, while he was gone. I rushed both of us to the hospital, knowing it was my only chance to make sure you were safe.” I pause in my story, looking at their reactions.

Melantha is fully engaged in the story, although I know I'm leaving out many details just to keep it kid-friendly. Uriah has a look of understanding on his face now, and Cass just looks tired. 

“Once I was in the room alone with the nurses, I begged them to take you away, and write down that I had a stillborn. They hesitantly agreed, and took you away, to where all the other children were. Once I was getting ready to leave, the head nurse sat down with me and asked me why. I told her it wasn't safe for you to stay with me, so putting you up for adoption was the best course of action, and that my husband would never know.” 

“Why didn't you look for me sooner? Why do you have white hair?”

“Well, I wasn’t allowed to look for you until I was away from my late ex-husband. It was part of the open adoption that until I was away from him, I was to not contact you. As for my white hair, I get that from my mother. Well, my biological mother. It's a genetic trait from her family.” Looking at all of them together, I frown for a moment, as they all look worried about something, concern clearly on Uriahs and Cass’s faces. “Alright, what else is there. I can tell by your faces that something is off, and you don't want to say anything.”

Malenthea stands up, putting her hand in my face, and I watch as her nails extend out, and I grab her hand gently, as they go back in. She takes her hand out of my grip quickly and sits back down beside her parents, and I sigh, and lean back on one of my arms, before lifting my other arm, letting it morph into a different hand entirely, or rather, a clawed hand. 

“You have the ability to shapeshift, on a lesser scale than I do.” Morphing my hand back into my own, I stare down at it for a second, a pained look crossing my face. “It's likely you'll be able to change your hair and eye color, as well as extending or exaggerating your features. I suggest changing your hair to match your parents.” I stand up wincing at the pain shooting through me. They watch me stand, and quickly follow me, Melenthea specifically rising faster than her parents. 

“Wait! Where are you going?”

“With this revelation, it's far better that we don't see each other for a while. It's too dangerous for you.” I sigh, turning back to face them, trying to keep my own emotions in check as I stare down at my own flesh and blood. “I know this isn't easy. I've been through this entire thing myself, just recently actually. Your abilities come naturally because they were not hidden. Mine was, for almost twenty-eight years. I'm still learning.”

“Then help me learn! We can do it together!”

“You are only twelve. You deserve to have your childhood, to have everything that was taken from me.” I kneel down, making it so that we are eye to eye. “Until then, you will get letters from me, but seeing each other is unlikely. It doesn't help that you are across the country from where I live currently.”

Gently reaching up, my hand cups her cheek, and I kiss her forehead before standing. I take a deep breath, and walk out the front door, heading out of the neighborhood entirely. I end up walking for a long while, finally getting to a secluded area. I take out my phone, texting Vergil my location, before sitting underneath a tree. I stare out at the woods in front of me, taking a deep breath, trying to figure out how I feel. 

“I shouldn't have gone. She would be so much better having no contact. It's too late now, especially since I promised letters to her.” Murmuring quietly I stare up at the tree I sit under, admiring the willow and the way the sun shines across the leaves. The hum of magic fills the air, and I turn my head towards the forest, seeing the portal open, and a hand reaching through. 

Grinning, I stand up, running towards the outstretched hand, grasping onto it, and being pulled in. Arms wrap around me the moment I'm through, and I smile, knowing that I'm home. 

June 10th, 2020, 3:49 AM

Jolting forward, I slap a hand over my mouth, suppressing a loud cry. It comes out muffled, but the sound still reverberates throughout our room, and I hear Vergil groan in his sleep, shuffling closer to me. The urge to get up is strong, and I follow it, finding myself in a trance-like state as I walk towards my painting supplies, and grab my biggest canvas, along with all of my paints, before shuffling away from my room. I close the door behind me and feel the urge get stronger, whispers joining it.

“Keep going, you need to paint, paint, see what comes. See what comes.” They grow louder and louder, and I start to run, feeling exactly where I should go from the tug in my gut, leading me out the back door, and to the start of the forest. Setting down the canvas, I open my paints, and grab the grey color first, before approaching the canvas once again, starting the first stroke. 

The voices continue to speak, and I can barely focus on anything, finding myself only once I drop the paintbrush, and the sun glaring above me. I stare at the painting in front of me, backing away from it once I fully recognize it. A ruby crown sits atop a crossed-out face, hands reaching from every direction towards the central figure, and the figure holds a skull in her hands, blood dripping from its mouth and eye sockets. The black throne the woman sits on is familiar, but I can't pinpoint it. At the bottom of the canvas, I can see hundreds of corpses at her feet, blood floating upwards to the grey-filled sky. 

“I… How long have I been out here? When did I get here?” I murmur, continuing to stare at the painting before me. I stare down at my hands, covered in paint, as well as my nightgown. Shaking my head, I start picking up everything, just wanting to put it away as quickly as possible. It takes me a fair bit, but I manage to bring everything in, leaving the painting in the lobby while I bring my supplies back to my room. 

“I remember the feeling of urgency, and running out of my room, but everything quickly turned into a blur…” I wonder aloud, opening the door, and seeing Vergil sitting up slightly against the headboard. “Good morning dear. Sorry if I woke you up.”

“You haven't. I've been up for at least ten minutes. Why are you up so early?” He mumbles, getting out of bed, and walking towards me as I set the paint’s down back where they were before. His arms wrap around my torso, and I gently hold them against me smiling. 

“Well, I was up earlier than this. I almost woke you up, but I managed not to. I went out after that to paint, it’s sitting in the lobby. I just finished working on it.” I replied, leaning my back against his chest and looking up at him. He hums, and once he sees that my face is angled upwards he steals a kiss, and I smile against his lips, bringing one of my hands to his face.

He pulls away and smiles down at me softly before a small smirk takes over, and he picks me up fully and tosses me onto the bed after walking me over to it. Laughing as he climbs on top of me, I smile up at him, before pulling his face down to mine, kissing him deeply. His tongue slides against my lower lip, and I part my lips slightly, my tongue going against his. We fight for dominance for a moment or two, before I let him win, smiling as the kiss goes deeper. 

Vergil's hand roams upwards, trailing from my thigh to the curve of my hip and staying there. I shiver slightly at the movement, before wrapping my legs around his waist completely. He groans at the motion, and his grip tightens. He pulls away from the kiss, pulling both of us up into a sitting position. I end up in his lap completely, and I wrap my arms around his shoulders, looking up at his face. 

***

“Why did you pull away, Vergil?” I murmur and stare up at his face, which is tense. He shakes his head, and exhales sharply, gripping my hips tightly. 

“I.. am trying to keep this at the pace you prefer, but you are so.. Alluring, it's making me want to give you everything I have.” His voice sounds more like a growl, and I find myself biting my lip. Gently I bring my hands to his face, cupping his jaw. 

“And what makes you think I wouldn't enjoy it? Are you afraid to leave bruises, my love? Because if that's the case I have to say I don't care.” Pausing at his grip getting tighter, and a groan leaves his lips, it sounding more like a snarl. “Do you have any idea how much I love having you leave bruises?” Murmuring softly, I lean forward, kissing him fully, my hands still on his face. 

Vergil’s hands make their way to my back, and I hear my nightgown tear as he tightly holds it. He pulls away from the kiss first, taking deep breaths, and looks down at me. 

“How do you feel about not leaving the bedroom for a few hours…”

“I think I can handle that, especially if I'm with you,” I murmur once again, and he lets out a low growl, tearing my nightgown completely off, throwing the tatters to the side. Almost instantly his own pants join my nightgown, and he lifts me up, and onto him, and I let out a loud groan as he goes deeper into me. Our hips meet, and he immediately pulls back, before ramming back in. His pace is fast and hard, and I find myself trying not to cry out from pleasure. His hands stay at my hips, bringing them down onto him whenever he thrusts up, causing even more force to be used. 

Panting heavily into his shoulder, I grip onto his back tightly, my entire body shaking from pleasure building up. 

Finding no other alternative to stopping my moans, I bite down onto his shoulder as gently as I can but end up digging my nails into his back to try and gain any sort of grip. His grip feels like a vice on me, but he lets go of one of my hips, bringing a hand up my spine and keeping it there, before I feel his teeth digging into my neck and I cry out against him, tightening around him. He keeps thrusting and I find myself reaching my limit quickly with his pace, and the force Vergil has put behind it. My nails dig into his back more, whimpering against him, my hips bucking against him as I reach my limit. Vergil’s grip tightens on me, and he quickly wraps our lower half in the sheets, and I feel the cold cloth against my back, whimpering more. 

***

The door opens with a slam, and I barely lift my head, tilting it against Vergil's neck, who at some point made it so his back was closer to the headboard. Dante, along with Trish, walk-in, starting to talk.

“Ey you two! We have a mission that needs to be done, are you going to get out of bed at any... Point.” Now seeing why Vergil had covered our lower halves, I rested my head against his neck, and listen to everyone talk, still trying to finish.   
“Get. Out.”  
“Uh… we still have to leave for the mission, and you’re our ride across the country.” Trish is the one who ends up speaking, and her voice shakes slightly, especially at the point when his hand grips my shoulder to the point where he draws blood. 

“Vergil, why don't you let her go, you're making her bleed.” Dantes's voice is heard next, and I don't even bother moving at all as Vergil grips me tighter, on my hip, and my back. 

“I said get out. What part of that do you not get?” His voice is a low snarl, and I hear one of them reach for something, to which I groan, and start to move. 

“Darling, they aren't going to leave the room, we can finish this later.” I kiss him gently, my hands shaking on either side of his face. Pulling away, I see him frown but nod anyway. Lifting me up slightly, he sets me against his chest, before motioning to both Dante and Trish to turn around. I hear them groan in annoyance, and hear them turn.

“Would you prefer to see both of us naked and intertwined, or will you shut up and deal with it?” he growls out at them, fully lifting me off of him, and onto the bed. I watch him walk to his pants, and put them on, but not bothering to put on a shirt. Bruises cover his neck and shoulder, and deep claw marks are gauged into his back and I wince, pulling the sheet completely over me before standing, and wrapping it around me. 

“You two can turn now. Alyx, why are you standing, go rest.” he motions for me to go lie down, and I shake my head frowning. 

“No, I want to heal your back.”

“It will heal on its own, unlike you, now go lie down. Or I will make you.” I open and close my mouth, staring up at him, before huffing, and doing as he says, because despite wanting to prove that he won't, I know that he most certainly will keep his words. Dante and Trish stare at him, Trish’s eyebrows raised while Dante is grinning.

“Sorry to interrupt your fun, but you did say yesterday that you would bring us.”

“I remember just fine, except for how it's not six-thirty pm now is it?” Vergil points at the clock on our wall, that reads one forty-three. Dante rubs the back of his head grinning sheepishly, and Trish sighs. 

“We should be done by six-thirty. It's a small infestation, we just needed the ride between countries that Nico can't make.”

Sighing, Vergil grabs the Yamato and opens a portal for them. “Text me the coordinates when you're done, now get out.” Both Trish and Dante run through the portal, and it closes behind them quickly after they both go through. Setting down the Yamato, Vergil turns back to me, looking me up and down, before sitting next to me on the bed. 

“Was it too rough on you?” Moving the sheet off of me, he looks down at my body, running his hand along all of the marks he had left. On my hips were two sets of handprints, one of them overlapping the other, and my thighs also had deep blue handprints as well as pinpricks of blood dripping down. My shoulder with the bite marks is a nice purple, and he runs his hand across it slowly, looking a bit guilty. 

“I should have gone easier on you. Those look like they're going to stay for a few weeks.”

“Oh, I hope they do. Now are we going to continue what we were doing, or are you going to leave me high and dry?” I murmur, grabbing the hand on my shoulder, and bringing it down to my hip on the deep bruises. He pulls his hand away, shaking his head. I frown, sighing, and lie down completely. “Fine then, at least lie down with me then, please?”

Nodding, he pulls the sheets back over me, before lying down next to me, and grabbing his book of poetry. 

June 12th, 2020? 1:20 PM

Feeling hands gently shaking me, I crack open my eyes, blinking slowly at the amount of light. I sit up, yawning as I look for who was shaking me awake. Looking around the empty library, I make a small face, but get up anyway, making my way down the balcony. Looking around once again, I rub the back of my head for a moment, before sighing deeply, and going to look for someone since I was already awake.  
After an hour, I start to panic, as I can't find anyone. Re-checking all the places that people would be, like the kitchen, Dante's office, or even their rooms. At every empty room, I find myself getting more and more frantic, feeling myself shift subconsciously as my nerves get to me. Finally, I hear talking coming from the kitchen, and I stumble in, tripping over my own feet, or rather my paws. 

“Who's there?” Recognizing Trish's voice, I get up quickly cursing. 

“Oh thank fuck! Trish, I've been running around trying to find everyone for the past hour? Was there a mission I wasn't told about again?” Walking quickly towards the sound of her voice, I finally see her, standing next to what looks to be Vergil, but he's wearing a monocle. “Oh hey Vergil! What's up with the monocle? You usually wear your reading glasses before bed, and last I knew you didn't own one.”

He stares at me and so does Trish with a look of surprise. Trish is wearing different clothes than usual and I tilt my head in confusion, staring at her. She sets down the spoon she was holding and walks towards me. “I believe you're mistaken, my name is Eva. This is my husband, Sparda. Now how did you get in our house?” 

My entire being freezes for a moment before I exhale sharply, with a small laugh. “Oh my god, you can't be serious, because if you are then that means I'm staring at two very dead people.”   
Sparda, or maybe his ghost, walks forward and looks down at the pendant on my neck, which thrums quietly in response to the demon. He looks at my face, and he takes on the same look that Vergils does when he gets angry, and he reaches down, grabbing my wrist tightly. 

“How did you find this place? Who else is with you?” He demands, putting more force against my wrist.

My wrist snaps from the pressure with a loud crack, and I wince, pulling it away with as much force as I can, trying to keep my nerves low as I back away. Once he gets a full glimpse of me, and my shifting features, I make a run for it, feeling the killing intent coming from him. I bolt out the back door sprinting as fast as I can for the tree line, hearing a loud crash from beside me as I'm blown away. I quickly grab thalear, and he hums, awake, transforming into the dagger I know. Looking at what had landed beside me, seeing Sparda, well the sword I'm used to seeing. It's pulled out of the ground by the actual Sparda, and I feel more of my features changing. 

“Are you going to answer me, or shall I force it out of you, succubus?” He almost snarls and brandishes the sword in the same style that Dante does. 

“Can we take a rain check? I don't feel like being stabbed today, and you already broke my wrist.” I laugh nervously, holding Thalear close to me and my hands shake aggressively, and I feel Vergil's sweater shift off of my shoulder slightly, the material still far too big on my small form. Sparda stares at the deep bruising on my shoulder for a moment, and I'm tempted to run in that split second.

“If you give me an actual response, I might even help you,” he replies, setting the blade against the ground for a moment. I continue to shakily hold the blade but refuse to move for a moment, before lowering the blade. 

“It's well, complicated to explain. I know how to find the house, because I've been living in it since May thirteenth of the year 2020. No, I don't know why I'm back here, at this time, but guessing by the clothes both you and your wife wear, I’m a good forty to forty-eight years in the past.” 

Setting down the weapon fully after a moment, he motions for me to walk towards him, and I hesitantly do so, staring up at his tall form. 

“You're off by a year. Forty-seven years. I can tell you're not lying, so I apologize for drawing my blade.” He picks up the blade once again, and it disappears, and he takes me by my arm, gently this time, leading me back into the manor. 

“It's alright, it's not the first time someone has. However, you are the one that was the most terrifying.” I reply slowly and stare at Eva and Sparda together. “I have to say it was very, uh, surprising to realize that you two were who she said you were.”  
He nods, and grabs my broken wrist gently, staring at it in confusion. “Why haven't you healed yet? You should have healed quite quickly…”

I shake my head and pull it out of his grip. “No, I can't. I can’t heal as fast because I fucked up and it's taking me ages to regain the amount of energy I need to be able to heal as fast as most demons or half-demons.” I stop talking and put my head in my unbroken hand, and sigh deeply. “I wasn't supposed to say that…”

“There are half-demons in your time? That seems rather odd.” It's not Sparda that ends up talking, but rather Eva, who stares down at my wrist, before pulling some gauze from the drawer and starting to wrap my wrist up. “You can handle pain fairly well.”  
“I've had to. In my life experiences, I've grown accustomed to pain, especially after living with an abusive husband for ten, almost eleven years of my life. That and what I've had to go through in just the past year. But if I told you any of it, history may change.” I murmur the last bit, staring down at the newly bandaged hand.

“Do you know how you got here? As in this time period, or just the past.”

“Well, I woke up here in the empty manor, after I felt someone try to shake me awake. Which obviously worked, but when I looked for the person who woke me up, there wasn't anybody there.” I explained to both of them, thinking back on what I had done. “After that, I figured that since I was awake, I was going to try to find someone to talk with, or just be around, as it's become a habit that whenever I'm alone, I end up getting injured in some way.”

Sparda interrupts my mini-rant, and I jump slightly at the tone of his voice. “Where did you wake up exactly?”

“The balcony in your library, by the empty bookshelves. I ended up sleeping there because I woke up in the middle of the night for the fifth night in a row… Instead of painting, I decided I would just read till I fell asleep.”

He immediately turns and starts to leave the room, and I hurry to catch up with him, jogging beside him just to match his walking pace. We walk, or in my case jog, to the library, and I immediately see the spot I fell asleep at and rush over to it, picking up the book that I had dropped. Sparda follows me up the stairs, looking around for anything that could have led to me ending up at this time. Finding nothing, he sighs, sitting down and thinking. 

“Maybe you have to sleep here, in order to wake up there?” 

Shrugging I sat against the wall like I had been when I woke up. “Sounds like a good idea, if I'm still here after an hour, wake me up okay? Oh, my name's Alyx by the way, Alyx Marcello.” I curl up slightly on myself, and with how much jogging and running I've done in the last two hours, I almost instantly fall asleep to the sounds of Sparda walking away.

June 12th, 2020, 3:46 PM

My entire body jolts forward, and cry out for a moment, looking around frantically, before staring down at my wrist, wondering if it had just been a dream. Almost immediately, I hear multiple footsteps running towards the library and the doors slam open aggressively.

“Okay! What happened this time?!” Hearing Nero and Nico’s voice makes my eyes start to water, and I quickly get up, and run down the stairs, flinging myself at the pair. Wrapping my arms around both of them, I kiss the top of Nero's head a few times, and then Nico’s.

“Whoa, mom, it's okay! Don't know why you're suddenly all okay for full-on hugs, but I'll take it.” he wraps his arms around me, and I hug him back tightly, before wincing and pulling away, staring down at my bandaged wrist.   
“Did you hurt your wrist?”

“No, your grandfather broke it,” I answer quickly and almost immediately try to find Dante, Vergil, or even Trish at this point. Rushing past both Nico and Nero, I hear them follow me close behind as I run to Dante's office, flinging the door open with my good hand. Like usual Dante's in there, and for once so is Vergil, and they both look up at me as the door opens, Dante setting down the magazine, and Vergil his book.

“What's up? You look, well, exhausted.”

“YOUR FUCKING DAD IS TERRIFYING!” I aggressively shout, pointing at both of them, to which both of them look more confused than before. 

“Uh, well, yes? Why are you yelling this exactly?”

“The motherfucker broke my wrist!”

Both of them look me up and down, and Vergil stands up. “Dear, why don't you go back to sleep? I know you have been getting up in the middle of the night.”

“That's what fucking sent me there in the first place! Also, your mother is a godsend, who has a great wrapping technique for bandages. I can't bandage for shit, and you all know this!” I raise my hand up, showing the bandage, and Dante actually stands up and looks at it. 

“I’ve seen mothers work enough times to have that ingrained in my head, that's an exact match. How did you end up there?” 

Shrugging, I undo the bandage, finding a heavily bruised wrist, with a massive handprint circling almost all of my wrist and lower forearm. “He at least apologized for trying to fight me, and for breaking my wrist.” I look up at both of them, and they both have a conflicted look on their face, and I sigh. “I don't know how to get back okay? If I knew how, I would tell you, but I don't. However, I think I'm going to take you up on that offer, I feel even worse than yesterday…” And with those words, I walked away, leaving both of the brothers behind to wonder what was going on, and I had the same thoughts, wondering if it was something that could happen again, and wondering why so many strange things had been happening lately. ‘I'll just have to check Mother's book again. It might have some useful information.’ I think to myself, as I climb the stairs up to my room.


End file.
